John Elsworth Turner / Turner Bankcorp Holdings / Turner Private Bank Jonathan Turner Defrauded my business of $110,000 "placement fee" for Project Funding Loan Cape Coral Florida

In 2017 I made the acquaintance of Doug Casale, owner of Investment Dynamics. He does non-traditional project funding. He chargesim about $575 for an FBI check, fair enough, we paid it. When, after a few months, he had not found funding for our project, I was advised that for $1200, he, Doug Casale, would do a more thorough search. Fair enough, we paid that, also.  

He then introduced us to John Turner, aka Turner Private Bank, aka Turner Bancorp Holdings. Turner wanted to fund our project.  He was introduced as a successful private banker whose bank had over $200 million in assets and over  200 clients. The problem was Turner required a $110,000 "placement fee" for the project funding loan. Once the "placement fee" was paid, the project would be funded within 90 days. In the event of non-performance, the "placement fee" was "fully refundable", the refund to be made within six weeks after written request, according to the contract..  

Thinking the fees high, but within the standard range for loans in the millions, we signed a contract and wired his business $110,000 in October 2017.   Although we had been assured by Mr. Turner that receipt of funds would be acknowledged within 15 minutes of arrival, it was many days before he even so much as acknowledged that the funds had been received.   At the end of the 90 days, we emailed repeatedly with no response for three weeks. When finally we did hear from John Turner, there had been a delay, but not to worry, the funding would occur in March. In March it was April, in April, for sure it would be May.

The delays were for reasons including: Having to purchase a wraparound insurance policy for the bond he was trading to fund us. Having to get a "safe keepers receipt" for the same. Not being able to open a necessary special bank account in time to take advantage of the opportunity to place the trade.  Although our contract was not contingent upon any type of trade, or bond. Why he couldn't have funded us with the more than $31 million cash in his business checking account (of which he had provided documentation) was never explained.  

I wanted to request the return of the $110,000 at the 90 day mark.  But Doug Casale advised "I can tell you exactly what will happen if you do this: He'll send the $110,000 back, and you won't have project funding". Seemed to make sense, so we waited. We'd have a telephone conference update about twice a month with Doug Casale, myself, and John Turner.  Every time we thought to request the return of the $110,000, Doug Casale would advise that John Turner said enough things that made sense to him regarding the delay, that he thought we should wait and also because "I do not have any other funding options for you now." Seemed to make sense. So we waited.   

We kept agreeing to constant delays until about February of 2019, when we threw in the towel and requested our  $110,000 "fully refundable placement fee" to be returned to us. Weeks later, when we had not received the refund, we contacted Turner, who replied "I am complying".    In May 2019, John Turner told us of some project that would enable him to not simply refund our $110,000 "placement fee", but to fund our entire project.  I agreed under the condition he sign a forbearance agreement, and that he provide documentation of the project he described. John Turner replied:  "No more documentation!

You  go on ahead and file charges and I'll bring in my big law firm!", and hung up on us.    We did not hear from John Turner again. Except about one month later to advise he had not signed our forbearance agreement because it was "unfair".   We subsequently filed suit against John Turner and his company. He did not reply. He did not show up in court. We won a default judgement for fraud, and for $110,000, - plus 4% interest.

We then served John Turner with papers for an interrogatory in order to ask questions such as :What did you do with the $110,000 "placement fee"? What happened to the $31 milion in his bank account? What happened to the $200 million in assets held by Turner Private Bank? Why were we not funded by these assets, and what became of them? We are currently awaiting this interrogatory. We have received no refund, no reimbursement, no project funding, not one thin dime from John Turner since wiring his business $110,000 in October of 2017.

At the time of writing, John Turner has failed to show up at his deposition, not once but twice!  After the first no show, we rescheduled. After sending an email claiming "I will be there, and I will be on time". John Turner did not show up to the deposition again, or respond to our call asking where he was, what had happened. 

 At a time when I should be successfully embarked upon a fascinating and profitable venture,. I am instead picking up the pieces of a broken life and chasing after a man who defrauded us of $110,000.