In my first article I had noted that I had intentions to suspend CORE Advisory Group back in March 31st, 2016, however, my former business partner Devin Benter (owner of CORE Advisory Group Svcs) had already masterminded an exit strategy by opening another dba name to resemble CORE Advisory Group by adding "Svcs" at the end of "Group" back in March 30th, 2016, a day prior to my attempt to suspend the company. Now, by him doing this, is a clear indication that he had no intentions to play by the books. Not only did he acquired a new dba name to resemble CORE Advisory Group but he also manipulated all the staff/employees and customers of ours into thinking that I was the disgruntled party, who had abandoned the company and every customer case files.
Many would ask, why not just move on or take other legal remedies against him? Moving on is something I wish I can afford and taking legal actions against him is still an option which I will carefully prospect. However, it is important to understand the severity and seriousness of this type of action taken by my former business partner, by him, not agreeing to a more civilized separation agreement but instead, decided to take an irrational approach by forcefully taking over the entire business without my consent or agreeing to work towards a dissolution, has placed me in a very vulnerable position to future lawsuits or even enforcement actions against me.
Because now, I've lost all access to the company/clients and any attempts to communicate with my former staff/employees is being reverted back to my former partner, and the fact that he did a great manipulation job where all current staff/employees has now turned against me with a negative perception as if, I'm the problematic partner, makes it difficult to isolate the ensuing problems that lays ahead. Without these access or communications, there is no way to be assured if the proper handling of these open case files that was acquired under my name before my separation, is it being worked on accordingly or will there be legal ramifications I must face in the near future? What recourse do I have or am I stuck facing with the unforeseeable consequences? These are my dilemmas.
Who is Devin Benter? Prior to having any business dealings with Devin Benter, he owned and operated the exact same business model as CORE Advisory Group but under a different company name of Colleagues in Law, till this day some of his staff from Colleagues in Law remains by his side under the new assumed name of CORE Advisory Group.
What prompted me to be associated with this conman? What took me so long to realize that I was nothing more than scapegoat of his? These questions haunts me till this day as I have to face my friends and family to explain the embarrassing outcome that what I thought was once a blissful business venture with a well established businessman, was nothing more but a fairy tale that turned into a whirlwind of problems, created with unnecessary burdens that I must now quickly fix before things begun to spiral out of control.
Damage Control
After my separation with CORE Advisory Group back in March 31st, 2016, I've seek multiple advice from litigation attorneys and they all came up with the same conclusion, "contact the authorities immediately" so I did, and my first discovery was a default judgement made by the State of Kentucky, stating CORE Advisory Group, LLC failed to respond to a complaint regarding a bankruptcy petitioned filed on behalf of a client and this client was awarded $5,000 in restitution and CORE Advisory Group, LLC was fined $7,500 on top of that.
So I continued to reach out to more states regulatory agency's within their enforcement divisions, and came across a case in Washington where a settlement has been reached on September 30th, 2016 with Devin Benter to pay restitution in the amount of $45,000 that will be used to pay back to the 12 victims from the State of Washington for engaging in the illegal practice of loan modification when he was operating under Colleagues in Law.
After speaking to their legal examiner, she wasn't too happy (an understatement) to find out that Devin Benter is now operating under a new assumed name CORE Advisory Group and continues to engage with consumers in the State of Washington, when he had told the examiner that he had already dissolved his company Colleagues in Law (which is true), but the fact of the matter is that he continues doing the same thing just under a different company name, so that didn't sit too well with the examiner so lets see how this will play out.
As I continued digging, more states are now involved like Texas, Oregon, Pennsylvania and just recently an article came out yesterday November 4th, 2016 about an Ohio Attorney General had filed a lawsuit against me for CORE Advisory Group, LLC and the list keeps on growing.
The question remains directly for Devin Benter, if you feel strongly of what you are doing is legitimate than why is there an open investigation regarding the business practices of both CORE Advisory Group & Colleagues in Law as well as lawsuits pending?
Just because you have a car and it's not under your name, does it give you the right to drive recklessly in it? And what makes you think you can do a hit n run on consumers and get away with it? Just because you change company names and addresses doesn't clear you from the mess that you've left behind. What world do you live in? Where is your morals and integrity? How do you feel proud to say you are a businessman/entrepreneur when your way of conducting businesses is by deceiving others? I've accepted my fate and accept full accountability to any actions taken towards me as a direct punishment for my naivete for once going into business with you. But I am not going to sit back and allow you to continue to take advantage of those around you.
Let this be a lesson learned and for any person(s) that decides to go into business with another person to carefully evaluate and research thoroughly to ensure the person you are planning to do business with doesn't have any hidden agendas. And for all consumers out there, that is reading this, may this be an advance warning to be wary and cautious of who you are doing business with, and any signs of red flags should be a hint to steer clear and avoid these types of unethical businesses.
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