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Sovereign Funding Group | Even More Inconsistencies in Latest Legal Documents

by Structured Settlmeent Watchdog™

They say that chronic liars that tell so many lies that they can't keep track of them all and eventually trip themselves up. This appears to be the case with David Springer. David Springer, the CEO of Sovereign Funding Group is an admitted fabricator, sworn to under oath June 28,2013.

The Mount Airy, MD resident, a Defendant in a lawsuit now coming to trial in August 2014. admitted to making up a bunch of fake names and creating fake Google Plus, Facebook and Linkedin profiles for them, created Better Business Bureau Profiles with some of these fabricatied characters which misrepresented his company to the BBB and consumers.  

David Springer's explanation for his alleged acts doesn't hold any water.  In fact one of his fake identities, James Spelling, was created when he was working with Andrew Cravenho on SSQ [Cravenho sold out his interest in SSQ in 2011]. One of the others, James Goldstein, was created at least as early as June 2011. Following is an excerpt of my August 10, 2013 commentary about Springer's deposition:

"James Goldstein has a Blogger.com profile that states he has been on Blogger since June 2011 and garnered 147 views between then and 2013 when the following screenshot was captured. Download James Goldstein Blogger June 2011. The JG Wentworth and Woodbridge law suits did not commence until October 2011 and November 2011 respectively. Again David Springer admitted, under oath, to fabricating James Goldstein in his published June 28,2013 testimony in the Woodbridge law suit against him.

David Springer has a Blogger profile that states it has been on since July 2011 and garnered 392 views. Download David Springer Blogger Profile since July 2011.  As you can see David Springer's  Blogger profile was created one month AFTER that for James Goldstein and 3 monthe before David Springer and Sovereign Funding Group were sued by JG Wentworth and 4 months prior to being sued by Woodbridge.  It is relevant in view of his testimony to include these words attributed to David Springer on his Blogger profile "  For the full August 10, 2013  commentary please click here

In his pretrial submission, David Springer's  explanations about SFG only brokering, were inconsistent with a long list of consumer and investor facing marketing statements used within the relevant time period. 

The below video testimonial that was uploaded to the You Tube October 26, 2012 at a time when David Springer was cloaked as the sock puppet phonus balonus credentialed CEO "James Goldstein" out of a Rockville MD UPS store mailbox. Please note:

At 0:44 the "testatrix" discusses an offer to purchase made by Sovereign Funding Group

At O:53 refers to a call made to the Better Business Bureau concurrent with the time period that David Springer admitted to creating  fabrications "James Goldstein" and "Sandy Jackson", the fake names used by Springer in his submission to the Sovereign Funding Group BBB report that is being promoted by the video.

 

     

On the Sovereign Funding Group  website at time of posting there are three video links touting Sovereign Funding Group as a Buyer of structured settlements.

• 10/26/2012 (above)  "Sovereign Funding Group Buys Structured Settlements"
• July 2, 2011 Wordpress " Sovereign Funding Group has been buying structured settlements and annuities for over 10 years and we have pioneered our own step by step process for quickly and efficiently purchasing structured settlement and annuity payments".  (emphasis added)
• June 24, 2011 Wordpress  "Sovereign Funding Group has been buying structured settlements and annuities for over 10 years... You can take comfort that you are in the hands of one of the most experienced and knowlegable structured settlement buyers in the industry".  (emphasis added)
• 2011 David Springer/SFG registers as uses the domains"webuypayments.net and webuypayments.com
• Current  SFG website  "Sovereign Funding buys fully guaranteed structured settlement annuities."  (emphasis added).

Comments

In the latter misrepresentation,  Sovereign Funding Group misleads investors because, if it is a buyer, it buys structured settlement payment rights, not structured settlement annuities.  When a structured settlement factoring transaction is concluded,  the annuity itself remains with the owner, typically a qualified assignment company.

• Didn't David Springer state in a May 2014 court submission that SFG was a broker, not a  buyer?
• Which statement is true and how would a consumer or investor know?   Is David Springer's statement, if true, an admission of the corollaryof his statement, false advertising?
• What would  David Springer say if he/SFG hadn't been sued by JG Wentworth and Woodbridge?

Better Business Bureau was on Springer's case in April 2011 and July 2011 about Advertising claims

"October 15, 2011  Better Business Bureau of Greater Maryland stated "In April 2011, in  accordance withe the BBB Code of Advertising, BBB reviewed the website of Sovereign Funding Group and requested they substantiate the claims they are a "nationwide industry leader, that they are 'offering higher lump sum payments," and that they offer'vastly superior customer service". The company was asked to provide comparative data regrading their competitors which supports those claims of superiority. In response, the company made a number of changes to the content on their website, but in July 2011, the new text continued to make claims of superiorityfor which the BBB requested substantiation, modification or discontinuance. The company (SFG) did not respond to that request" Download Sovereign Funding Group Business Review in Columbia, MD - Maryland BBB 9-29-2011 [scroll down to the top of page 2]

This BBB verbiage appeared  until at least March 6, 2012. when the BBB seal was taken off the SFG website.

It may be worth noting that the "webuypayments.net redirect scheme" was hatched at the same time as the BBB inquiry.

Ayn Rand said it well in Atlas Shrugged:

 “People think that a liar gains a victory over his victim. What I’ve learned is that a lie is an act of self-abdication, because one surrenders one’s  reality to the person to whom one lies, making that person one’s master, condemning oneself from then on to faking the sort of reality that person’s view requires to be faked…The man who lies to the world, is the world’s slave from then on…There are no white lies, there is only the blackest of destruction, and a white lie is the blackest of all.”
― Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

“You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.”
― Abraham Lincoln

“I always say the truth is best even when we find it unpleasant. Any rat in a sewer can lie. It’s how rats are. It’s what makes them rats. But a human doesn’t run and hide in dark places, because he’s something more. Lying is the most personal act of cowardice there is.”
― Nancy Farmer

Sovereign Funding CEO Admits Was Imposter Of His Wife Takes 5th When Asked Why

by Structured Settlement Watchdog®

Sovereign Funding CEO David Springer has admitted the fabrication and assumption of multiple fake identities. Springer's admitted fake identities were used in public facing social media such as Google Plus, Linkedin and the Better Business Bureau, SEO Moz (Moz) and Manta to promote the business of Sovereign Funding Group.

When asked in his June 28, 2013 deposition  "was your wife ever involved in Sovereign Funding in any capacity ?" David Springer testified " No. None whatsoever"  [ pacer.gov Case 1:11-cv-03421-MJG Springer depo p 21 line 14]

In their answer to the Woodbridge Complaint on June 25, 2012, David Springer and Sovereign Funding Group repeatedly prefaced answers to Plaintiffs asserted facts with "prior to the time Sovereign Mortgage and Funding Corp ceased operations, when in fact the company was still alive and that "No.None Whatsoever" Melissa Springer was the named owner of the company on record with the State of Maryland. Download SFMG Maryland SoS records 4-3-2013

As I've reported in prior blog posts, David Springer was indiscriminate in assuming female or male identities for the fake names he used with the Better Business Bureau of Greater MD  or other public facing social media. 

In one notable exchange in his June 28, 2013 deposition David Springer admitted to assuming the identity of a real person, Melissa Springer his wife, using the email address [email protected] in a Google forum related to complaints about Traffic Power, a SEO company that in or about 2004-2006 was accused of getting its clients' websites, including that of Sovereign Funding Group,  banned from Google*.  Prior to being instructed to take the 5th by his attorney, Springer admitted  that he "legally was not allowed to work yet" [ Springer depo p169 lines 13-21 to p 171 line 6, emphasis added].

David Springer's waffling begs a reasonable and obvious question...

David Springer admitted under oath that he was "legally not allowed to work yet" in 2004, How about from the time of the most recent filing and up until mid August 2013 when Melissa Springer was listed as principal owner of Sovereign?  Was David Springer truthful about Melissa Springer not being involved in Sovereign Funding in his deposition?  Was he legally allowed to work, or wasn't he?

Taking the 5th In Civil Cases

In civil cases, the Supreme Court has held that "the Fifth Amendment does not forbid adverse inferences against parties to civil actions when they refuse to testify in response to probative evidence offered against them." Baxter v. Palmigiano, 425 U.S. 308, 318 (1976); see also Error In Excluding Evidence Of Civil Defendant’s Invocation Of The Fifth Amendment Privilege. While an adverse inference instruction is not automatic in civil cases, the trial court may permit one [Source : Federal evidence.com]

About Traffic-Power

*From a January 7, 2008 post by Matt Cutts, Google

"Earlier today I was reviewing an email from 2001 (!) where Google removed a very large company’s website from our index for hidden GIF links, machine-generated doorway pages, and cloaking. It’s interesting to look back with the benefit of hindsight now. Later on, re Traffic Power:

I can confirm that Google has removed traffic-power.com and domains promoted by Traffic Power from our index because of search engine optimization techniques that violated our webmaster guidelines at http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html. If you are a client or former client of Traffic Power and your site is not in Google, please see my previous advice on requesting reinclusion into Google’s index to learn what steps to take if you would like to be reincluded in Google’s index".

Here is the thread that David Springer was questioned about during his June 28, 2013 deposition where he he purports to be his wife.   Download "Melissa Springer" -really David Springer as he admitted 6-28-2013 SEO book on Traffic Power-1

and Download David Springer and Traffic Power thread Download David Springer and Traffic Power thread

On February 10,2013, Greg Maynard of Sovereign Funding ( which we assume to be David Springer based on his June 28,2013 testimony) asked for a legal SEO opinion letter in a very public Google webmaster forum

Download Sovereign We Will Pay For a Legal SEO Opinion Letter - Google Groups

One of the answers to the request seems to suggest that the Sovereign Funding Group webaite was still affected by manipulative links.  Here's the relevant excerpt

..."a letter is just about worthless because any written statement must be backed up during cross examination during depositions and ultimately the trial. So what you really need is a live body willing to spend the next 2, 3 even 5 or 10 years of their life for the preliminary and trial phase of your case as well as any appeals.(and there will be appeals)/ A potential paid witness should perform a moderate level of due diligence and check out their client before hand and they will find nearly 400,000 backlinks according to Majestic https://www.majesticseo.com/reports/site-explorer/summary/www.sovereignfunding.com?IndexDataSource=H  including some real tasty (manipulative) backlinks. 

Bottom line, your expert is going to need to dodge and weave on the stand with the best of them and I don't think it can be done". [ emphasis added]

 

Sovereign Funding/ Springer Held In On Woodbridge Lawsuit: Judge Denies Dismissal

by John Darer

After jousting over service of process, the Maryland Federal Court has denied the motion of Defendants Sovereign Funding and its CEO David Springer, to dismiss over improper service. The Court concurrently dismissed the Woodbridge Motion for Default against the same Defendants, In its Order dated February 24, 2012, the Maryland District Court stated

1. Defendants shall promptly provide Plaintiff with information that, Defendants' contend, will demonstrate that Plaintiff has not sued the correct Defendants.

2. If Plaintiff agrees, it may dismiss the case altogether or file an Amended Complaint naming substitute Defendants.

3. If claims against them are not dismissed, Defendants shall file a motion seeking dismissal or an Answer by March 30.

4. Should there be a dismissal motion filed, the parties may proceed with formal discovery thereafter pending resolution of the motion and a Scheduling Order shall be issued after resolution of the motion

5. Should there be no dismissal motion filed, a Scheduling Order shall be issued on or about April 6.

Source: PACER.gov   Woodbridge Structured Funding, LLC Plaintiff v Sovereign Funding et al., Defendants (MD Civil Action MJG-11-3421) Copy of complaint ---->http://structuredsettlements.typepad.com/files/woodbridge-complaint-v-sovereign.pdf

Springer and Sovereign Funding contend in Court documents that Woodbridge has filed a sham lawsuit and that they too are victims. Stay tuned.

Meanwhile on the JG Wentworth lawsuit v Springer and Sovereign, a typically low budget "celebratory" podcast appeared in late January. It featured frequent Sovereign Funding spokesperson "Tricia Cooper", who recently sported fake balloon breasts replete with erect nipples in a Sovereign Funding commercial (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9KGVuRMQvw&feature=related  removed following our criticism) in which she squealed "here are two great reasons to sell your payments to Sovereign Funding". 

The "celebrations" appear premature as it does not appear that the J.G. Wentworth lawsuit against Sovereign Funding and David Springer was dismissed, merely that J.G. Wentworth's motions for preliminary injunction and expedited discovery were denied on December 21, 2011. Some like me, might also find it suspect that a Scribd account bearing the name of jgwentworth appears to be used to Google bomb "J. G. Wentworth Scam". J.G Wentworth denied to this author that it posted the pleadings or any court documents on Scribd.