I hope you had a great May. As the summer is getting started many of my clients are urgently working to get as much business done prior to the Fourth of July holiday as possible. My conversations with many clients last week were around a big push over the course of the next 4 to 5 weeks to fund as many merchants as possible. Many teams are looking to exceed their funding goals, so they can enjoy their holiday properly. I am seeing a major increase in the purchase of leads, new hiring and increased technology by many top performing teams. There were several things that caught my attention last week. Here are a few of them.
Kris Roglieri from Prime Capital, who I have discussed on several occasions, was arrested last week and charged with wire fraud. Roglieri is accused of taking upfront payments from business owners in order to secure capital for these clients. The dollar amount in capital taken upfront it said to be in the tens of millions of dollars. In one case a Minnesota business owner was looking to secure 100 million dollars for a property deal. Roglieri told this business owner he could help him secure capital, but he needed a 5-million-dollar deposit. When the business owner deposited the 5 million dollars with Roglieri a portion of the funds were paid to other prime capital investors that were owed money back. Roglieri then purchased a day date Rolex watch and used 101,000 dollars for a private jet vacation for his family. Roglieri has been detained until a hearing this morning in New York. The reason I post content like this is I speak with many brokers daily who when they speak about LOC bait and switch and stolen social security and 30 percent PSFs will often say the business is unregulated and we can do what we whatever we want. When dealing with the public’s money any type of fraud will be investigated and prosecuted by the federal government.
This past week as I went through several of my social media accounts, particularly on Instagram I was surprised at the enormous amount of MCA debt settlement companies advertising. I have been in the MCA industry since 2012 and MCA Lead generation since 2016. When I begin working it in MCA Leads there was one major company doing MCA debt settlement. There seems to be a new debt settlement company popping up every day. The aggressive cold calling, marketing and advertising in this industry is something iso team should pay attention to. It is important to educate and stay in touch with your merchants and let them know that if they are struggling with your payments, there is a solution that you can offer them and they do not need to pay someone to do default on an advance. This is something you need to pay close attention to. Debt companies are educating merchants about LOC bait and switch and high fees. In most case they are coaching merchants on how to default. Regularly stay in touch with merchants to see how things are going with their business and payments, so you do not receive a surprise from your funders.