The Tempelton Group Tempelton Group, Mymodificationloan.com Former Tempelton Group Employee Speaks Out Westbury New York

Before anything, please allow me to say how sorry I am for any and all of you who were ripped off by The Tempelton Group.  It is hard enough to deal with the worry of financial difficulty, and having it made worse by a company who was supposed to be helping is just terrible. Having 2 school age children and my own set of financial burdens, I can empathize with what you are all going through.

I worked at The Tempelton Group for about 2 months over the summer (2013) as an account opener (aka an “application taker”).  Because my tenure was brief I only had a handful of clients who enrolled for the loan modification program. Luckily, by all working together, we’ve been able to find them assistance with some local housing agencies- and so far everyone has been able to get help and move on.  With that being said I will gladly help anyone who needs assistance, completely free of charge.  My contact information will be listed below (due to the fear of retribution and threats I will unfortunately need to remain anonymous at this message board).

I would like to take a few moments to clarify some of the information that has been posted on this board and in other reports. Although I was a part time employee (10-3pm) I still spent many hours over the eight weeks I was there, and because the office was one large space, I was able to observe the entire goings on of the operation. You can rest assured anything I state below will be based on my actual firsthand knowledge and is 100% accurate and truthful (or I will state otherwise).  I should also state that my husband’s brother is an attorney and he has reviewed and assisted me with what I am writing here.

Although it might appear to the contrary, most of the employees of Tempelton Group were not aware of what was going on behind the scenes.  I speak not just for myself, but for a few of the former employees that I have been in contact with.  The majority of the problems you are all facing are based on the mishandling of the files after they were enrolled- that is, once they were handed off to the processing department (the people who deal with your bank).  Speaking from my own experience, the salesperson’s responsibility was to qualify the client and then assist them with gathering documents, contracts and payment. At that point the file was handed over to the office manager who supposedly took over from there (and handed the file off to our processing department).  Because of the nature of the loan modification process, a delay of several weeks is actually quite normal.  The banks are backed up with loads of applications and it takes them a lot of time to review all of these applications.  So when it appears that no work is being done initially, it is quite reasonable to explain to a client that the beginning of the process has a lag time.  And this is what we did.  We told our clients “don’t worry” or “this is normal (I actually worked as a processor for a very reputable law firm in 2011 and this is exactly how it worked there as well).  The processing department at Tempelton was a separate office, with a door that was closed most of the day, and as far as any of us knew, work was being performed on the files.  Unfortunately, we know now, that was not happening.  In fact, there was very little work being done in there at all, perhaps just enough to keep many of you thinking your files were being worked on. 

In full disclosure, I did see a processing staff working files in a small section of the main office.  There were a handful of good employees who were on the phone all day with clients and banks. In particular two of them, a woman named Christina and young man named Alex, worked diligently every day at this.  But a couple of employees cannot handle the mighty workload of thousands of clients.  And to make matters worse, illogically Christina was let go in early August due to “downsizing”. Once I saw this company let go really the only hard working processor it had, I decided to leave as well.

I cannot state unequivocally if every single salesperson was unaware of the deception of the Tempelton Group, but perhaps we should give most of them the benefit of the doubt until any evidence to the contrary surfaces. Most of them were kindhearted and helpful people. I can however say that The Tempelton Group had no management whatsoever, except for the three main principles; Alan Kalastein, Operations Manager, Mike Sonner, Processing Manager, and Will Wanek, owner.   Here is what I can tell you about each of them;

Alan Kalastein was in charge of the entire sales force. He was in charge of running the radio/TV campaigns, the leads, the sales appointments and the commission of sales employees. He also went on many sales appointments that we, as openers, set for him. Mr. Kalastein is a rude and dishonest little man who made thousands of dollars in cash a week working here. He would do anything and say anything to make a sale (including steal clients from his own employees regularly). However, he would do nothing, absolutely nothing, to assist a client who was trying to get assistance (or God forbid a refund).  I actually overheard him once remark to my coworker that it was okay to deny an elderly client a refund because “she’ll be dead soon anyway” and then laughed about it.  Over the last few weeks I have learned that Alan Kalastein has worked at (and owned) at least 3 different loan modification companies- ripping off thousands of homeowners in his wake. He also had an insurance office that was closed down and was under investigation by NY State for his previous loan modification practices. He is truly a despicable man, a criminal, and he deserves whatever repercussions are coming to him.  If there is one single person in the entire organization who should be held more accountable than anyone else, it is Alan Kalastein.

Mike Sonner was the director of the processing department.  Even though his office was about 10 feet from my desk, I did not see much of him because he was behind closed doors most of the day.  He is a very strange and quiet man, and obviously extremely vain because he wears short sleeved tee shirts that are about 2 sizes too small to show off his ridiculously out of proportioned arm muscles (my husband actually saw him very briefly once and remark that he looked like a ‘roid head’).  Undoubtedly Mike knew everything that was going on because he oversaw the entire processing operation (or lack thereof).  There are records online that indicate Mike was the director of another loan modification company that was tied to The Tempelton Group which one day just closed its doors, leaving all the clients to fend for themselves (sound familiar?).

William Wanek was the owner of the Tempelton Group. I can honestly say that he was a pleasant person and always had nice things to say to anyone I saw him engage with.  He was even encouraging to me when I first started (my desk was right by his office).  Mr. Wanek did not seem to be very hands on with running his company. It appeared that Alan Kalastein ran most of the business.  The only time Will was really involved on Fridays when he would return back from a Brooklyn check cashing business with Al Kalastein with all the cash to pay the employees. I don’t know if Al and Mike Sonner were running his company into the ground without his knowledge, or if he was just as guilty as they were.  I will assume he knew because he changed the name of the company in the middle of the summer from The Tempelton Group to Mymodificationloan.com, supposedly in reaction to some bad press The Tempelton Group was getting by this time.

A few other notables:

There was another guy named Eli who was the “IT” manager, but I never saw him doing much IT work. Someone told me that he dealt drugs and was on drugs, and based on his appearance and the fact that he often drank beer at his desk, this wouldn’t surprise me. I also heard he was homeless (this wouldn’t surprise me either). I avoided him at all costs.

A Russian woman named Yelena worked under Al at Tempelton, who I later found out was named alongside him in a restraining order by the NYS Supreme Court forbidding them to engage in loan modifications.  I kept my distance from her because she always seemed to involved in some sort of emotional crisis (perhaps my woman’s intuition).

A young guy in his twenties named Ralph worked there with his girlfriend Beth.  Although she seemed nice, and he was very quiet, they seemed very troubled.  I think they were drug addicts.  Once when I returned from a day off it was reported to me by the other women I worked with that he had actually punched her in the face in the middle of the office.  Apparently at least 10 people witnessed it (including my friend who was absolutely horrified).  

There was another manager named John who had a small team at the other end of the office, I did not have enough exposure to them to draw any conclusions about them, but around the time I left, most of them had already left the company and I heard that he left too.  They seemed pretty professional from what I saw.

Some of the people named in a few other reports were people that I worked close enough with to surmise the kind of people they were; namely Ron Tuftan and Kevin Quinn.  I can state that I am almost certain they did not know what was going on behind the scenes.  They are two very nice gentlemen, both have families, and both were very helpful to anyone I ever heard them speak to on the phone.  If you dealt with them and can’t reach them now, perhaps they have no way of reaching you as all the files were seized.

The scam at the Tempelton Group hurt so many families and individuals, its beyond appalling. But I have heard that many of the employees also got burned out of money that they earned (or at least thought they earned).  Nobody that I met who worked there was driving a fancy car or rolling in big bucks, as some of you might assume.  Aside from what Will and Al and Mike must have earned, the majority of the workers made more or less what I did- a few hundred dollars per sale.  My commission was about $300-400, which was split with the salesperson, who made between $500-600 per sale (over the course of a few months).  Most salespeople had maybe 1-2 new clients on a good week, but frequently there was very little office activity, which would mean that there were no new clients. There were many weeks where it seemed the only person making new sales was Alan Kalastein.  I’m only speculating, but doing the math a conservative estimate is that he probably made somewhere between 7,000- to 10,000 dollars per week.(in cash).  Not bad for someone who did nothing but bring misery and financial devastation to every client he came in contact with. 

I am as glad as anyone that this company was finally shut down, but this leaves a big problem for anyone who dealt with them. Now what?  Many of you have mortgages that have gone unpaid for months; some of you are in foreclosure.  Like I stated above, I can be reached at formertempeltonemployee@yahoo.com. I will do my best to steer you in the right direction and help answer any questions you may have on what to do next.  You certainly should contact the Attorney General of your state as well as the Nassau County District Attorney’s office.   You also can seek assistance from a local housing agency that can perhaps pick up where you left off.  If you do a web search for ‘housing assistance’ on your state’s attorney general website, you should get a listing of some that are in your area.  If you are in foreclosure and/or facing a sale date from your bank, you should probably contact an attorney (obviously tell them what happened and ask for references). In the event you are days away from a foreclosure auction you should know that you have the right to file bankruptcy right up to the morning of this sale (but don’t wait that long!). This will stall the sale date process for many months and get you the extra time you need to figure out what to do.  I am currently working for a small realtor that has ties with a few attorneys, I can refer you to some of them if needed.

I wish all of you the best of luck; you are in my thoughts and prayers every day.

"Mrs. A"

-Anonymous Former Tempelton Employee