by Structured settlement Watchdog®
I stumbled upon the website of Franklin Settlements this morning. and its upsetting to "my Constitution"
The company, which states that buys structured settlement annuities, lists a toll-free number but no physical address or even a P.O. Box. The About section of the website says nothing about the company or any of its team except for a brief bio of Benjamin Franklin presented alone, as if the company is a descendant of the Founding Father. Is it?
I contacted the company phone number and was met with a respondent who could not tell me where the home office of Franklin Settlements was. She said they had offices in Philadelphia, Florida and Wyoming. A search with the Pennsylvania and Florida Secretaries of State comes up blank for Franklin Settlements LLC. The company does come up on the grid through the Wyoming Secretary of State Download Franklin settlements llc
A press release issued in May 2012 refers to a John Davidson. A John Davidson is also listed as chief marketing officer for Ozark Funding. Ozark Funding also lists a phone number but no physical address. There is just a vague clue that they are from the Midwestern United States and that its 'experienced staff is made up of veteran’s (sic) from the structured settlement industry". The privacy policies for both entities list the name of the company and website with no physical address, email or contact information. There is a copyright claim for the generic term ' secondary market annuities' 2012 on Ozark's website. A click on the 'instant call back' button says the mailbox is full.
All in all both Franklin Settlements LLC and Ozark Funding LLC raise the eyebrow for the utter lack of consumer critical information that is the scourge of the structured settlement secondary market. A consumer should not have to go to such lengths to get basic information and to find out who they are dealing with.
"Frankly", if company that wants your business lacks basic transparency I'd tell them to "go fly a kite!
Postscript
Subsequent to this post, we discovered that Franklin Settlements was associated with Owings MIlls MD natives Richart Ruddie and Ryan Blank at the time Einstein Structured Settlements was launched in 2012 as well as Wellington Florida lawyer Robert Ostrov. At the time Franklin website was published Ruddie was being sued for Deceptive Trade Practices. It was later discovered that Ruddie associated companies utilized paid fake testimonials and other deceptive practices in connection with structured settlement websites. A controversy that emerged in 2016 involved Ruddie's association with phony lawsuits [ see Richart Ruddie Companies Sent Forged Papers to Rhode Island Federal Court]. In January 2018, the Ruddie's and Blank's fraudulent business activity caught up with them as their companies were banned from doing business in Maryland for 7 years after an investigation by the Maryland Attorney General's office.
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