Excellence Real Estate Finance LLC Excellence RE Finance Jeff Harbert Took deposit and never came through with the loan Las Vegas Nevada

I completed an application online after exchanging emails with Jeff Harbert of Excellence Real Estate Finance who said he should be able to help me with a home purchase. A few days after completing the application I received an email with a contract to sign with a requested security and processing deposit of $8485. This made me leery of this offer, but I asked for proof of funds and references and got 3 from Jeff. I reached out to those 3 and they all came back positive. I also asked for proof that he could fund the transaction and got a Chase Bank statement showing over $72MM in the business account. The statement appeared to be authentic.

After looking on the internet and seeing if there was any negative info out there on Jeff or Excellence Real Estate Finance, I found nothing negative. So, I wired the $8485 to a so called agent of Jeff's by the name of Melissa Wolfe, who was supposed to be located in Ohio and handling the transaction for him. I never heard anything from her despite the fact that Jeff said I would. I kept texting Jeff and finally he said everything was done and the funds would be wired to my account. A few more days went by and the day I was promised I would receive the funds by 3:00, I received another text saying that his partner got into town to wire the funds, but they then realized the title work had not been completed and they asked for another $4,250 for that.

From then on, I said no, cancel the transaction, and return my deposit to me, which he said he would do. A little while later, I got another text stating that it would take 30 days to refund my deposit because it had to be processed through corporate which was either at 14625 Whittier Blvd Whittier, CA 90605 or in Los Angeles, CA.

This whole transaction now feels fraudulent and bogus and I am wondering if I can pursue wire fraud and other actions against this company due to wiring the $8485 through the US banking system. But at least, I want others to not be defrauded like I was and potentially lose their money.