Julie Anne Markwood Julie Ann Markwood Julie Markwood Joshua Staggs Joshua John Robert Staggs Moon & Back Capital LLC Moon & Back Consulting LLC Aeterna Capital Partners Non performing "lender" takes deposit and never funds - promises return of deposit - doesn't make good on promise. Florida

Our company was in the process of seeking financing for growth.  Julie Anne Markwood ("Markwood") - who holds herself out as a loan broker, offered to bring a lender or iinvetor to the table.  Ms. Markwood is either a principal of or has worked with the following companies: Moon & Back Capital LLC, Moon & Back Consulting LLC, Drum Roll Capital LLC as well as several other organizations.  (Markwood's LinkedIn profile is:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamarkwood/ ) Markwood informed us that she had an investor that liked companies in our sector and asked for our pitch deck in order to gauge their interest. 

The investor that she believed would have an interest was Aeterna Capital Partners from the Cayman Islands - there are many companies with this name but this one has a website of: www.aeternacapitalpartners.com.  The company was represented by a person who went by the name of Joshua John Robert Staggs.  In conversations with Josuha Staggs, he said Aeterna represented several family offices and other high net worth individuals and entities.  The literature from Aeterna also showed that a Mr. Albert Cheok was affiliated with Aeterna.  The picture in the Aeterna brochure is Albert Cheok known for his role in pioneering REITs in Singapore (among other things) but there was never any contact or communication from anyone who represented themselves as Mr. Cheok.

After review of our pitch deck and preliminary financial information, Aeterna issued a term sheet for a convertible loan.

While we had concerns about Aeterna (we had never done a deal with them), we were assured by Julie Anne Markwood that they were legitimate and that she had closed deals with them recently.  She was so confident that she indemnified us for half of the due diligence fee in the event that Aeterna did not fund.

The term sheet called for a substantial ($75,000) due diligence fee, however, the parameters of the term sheet called for the deposit to be fully refundable in the event the deal did not close except in the case of borrower fraud.

We went through the due diligence process and the funding was approved.  Loan documents were signed by all parties and a closing was scheduled.

The closing never happened.  The funding never came.  We made a demand for teh deoposit but the deposit was never returned despite several promises that is was on the way.  The indemnification was ignored by Ms. Markwood.

 Joshua Staggs made claim after claim for weeks after the scheduled closing date - but funding or a deposit return was not forthcoming.

Repeated demands to Julie Anne Markwood to enforce the indemnification were ignored and no proof of Aeterna actually funding a deal was ever provided.

Caveat emptor with Julie Anne Markwood, Joshua Staggs, Moon & Back Capital/Consulting, Drum Roll Capital and Aeterna Capital Partners.

We are pursuing further legal action but wanted others to be aware of our experience.