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Truckers: Clearwater Firm Doesn't Honor Contracts

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By MARK DOUGLAS

News Channel 8

Published: October 30, 2008

For long-distance truckers with troubled credit, it sure seemed like a great opportunity.

Sign a contract, send in a check, and in no time they'd be hitting the highway behind the wheel of their own leased rig instead of driving for someone else.

But a News Channel 8 investigation has located at least 20 drivers in a dozen states and Canada who say they ended up without a truck, a lease agreement or a refund after signing contract proposals with Global Funding LLC in Clearwater.

"They're taking hardworking men's money, and we're getting nothing for it," said Dave Mendenhall, a Global client who hauls frozen seafood between Washington State and Texas.

Dozens of customers such as Mendenhall say they signed contract proposals with Global Funding and sent checks to cover lease deposits, advance lease payments and other fees and ended up without a lease or a refund.

Global says it is entitled to keep advance payments as "earned income" when clients misrepresent their credit or try to back out of lease offers from third-party funding providers after having signed a contract with Global.

The Florida Office of Financial Regulation's Bureau of Financial Investigations is now conducting a criminal inquiry according to investigator Clifford Jones, and it's not the only government agency showing an interest.

The Florida attorney general is investigating more than 40 complaints against Global. Clearwater police have received seven complaints. And the Pinellas County Department of Justice & Consumer Services has three complaints on file from customers who say Global has refused to refund some or all of their money. It's unclear whether these are distinct cases.

Mendenhall says he complained to Florida authorities after Global refused to refund his $4,210 deposit and advance payment.

"First you feel a little embarrassed about it and humiliated, and then it starts making you mad," Mendenhall said. He later found alternative funding for a truck to haul frozen seafood from Spokane to Texas but says he knows of other drivers who sent thousands to Global and haven't been as fortunate.

"Some of these guys might have spent the last 10 years saving up to buy that truck and become an owner-operator, and now they can't," Mendenhall said.

Global Funding's founder and sole owner, Jeff Maricle, said he has received a number of complaints — even death threats — from clients who don't understand or appreciate how his business operates. "We're very straightforward. We tell them it's a process. We tell them we have to validate information," Maricle said.

Maricle says he started his company after learning the business in Missouri from an expert in heavy equipment leasing who now is deceased. "These are contracts that are used throughout the entire industry," Maricle said.

That surprises Stetson College of Law professor Candace Zierdt, who reviewed one of Maricle's contracts at the request of a reporter. "The way they keep all the money at the end -- that's not fair, that's something we would consider a penalty," Zierdt said.

A number of customers who have complained about Global Funding said they were unclear about the company's role in arranging leases when they signed contract proposals. Many of them thought Global supplied funding directly.

Maricle calls his business a "single-source heavy-equipment leasing company."

In practice, Maricle's company acts as a facilitator or lease broker that connects clients who want heavy equipment to sources willing to fund leases.

Maricle says he doesn't call himself a broker "because we're not a broker. … If anything, we're more of a wholesaler, and this is why we buy the money from the sources. We package it up and we resell it," Maricle said.

For months, Maricle has resisted the Florida attorney general's efforts to see his client contracts, list of funding providers and other business records. In a recent court hearing, his attorney, Steven W. Moore, agreed to show attorney general's office investigators sample contracts but didn't want anyone contacting Maricle's funding sources.

Maricle said he has been resisting a subpoena from the attorney general because no one will do business with him if they know his company is under investigation. "I'm fighting it for our survival," Maricle said.

Maricle said he follows leasing industry standards when he offers proposals to clients and has them sign binding contracts that allow Global to change financial terms. He collects as much as $20,896 in advance, and the company has the right to keep advance payments as "earned income" if clients refuse any deal that Global puts on the table, he said.

Some truckers complain that Global not only changed the terms of contracts but also substituted trucks they had never seen for equipment they wanted to lease.

Some truck dealers say they disapprove of his practices.

In July, Eddie Walker, president of the Used Truck Association, a nationwide organization made up of truck dealers, associated businesses, and other professionals in the trucking industry, wrote a letter to Maricle voicing concerns raised by some of its members.

"Since you have become a member of the Used Truck Association (UTA), we have received a number of phone calls of complaints about your business practices," Walker wrote.

Walker goes on to outline the problem that triggered the complaints from UTA members who've done business with Global.

"All alleged complaints seem to be the same, once a deal is submitted to you by a dealer, your company contacts the customer and tells them they are approved and the customers are requested to send you moneys to process the paperwork. Through the process the deal changes and no longer is agreeable to the customer but the customer cannot get you to refund their money."

Maricle wrote back, defending his business practices, and said "Global Funding LLC is committed to the Trucking and Equipment Industry and we look forward to providing commercial leasing options for many years to come."

Jeffrey Orlando, who co-owns T.S.I. Truck Sales in Lake Wales, doesn't belong to the UTA but wrote his own letter of concern about Global's business practices after referring three of his customers to Global for funding on used truck leases.

"Basically, it was a warning letter to other dealers, and it was my way of getting the word out," Orlando said.

Orlando said Global Funding misleadingly marketed itself to him as a funding source, not a lease broker, and used him to reach his customers. "Absolutely, I feel like Global came in and misrepresented what they could do and earned my trust, and they took advantage of that," Orlando said.

He says one of his customers who did not get a lease through Global is still waiting for a refund, and two others ended up with switched deals they didn't really want or bargain for when they signed Global's original contract proposal.

In repeated interviews with a reporter, Maricle heaped much of the blame for failed deals and trucker complaints on the dishonesty of clients who have bad credit and lie about their credit histories on the applications they send to his company.

Maricle said he had to call Clearwater police at least twice when unhappy customers got out of hand.

Miami-based trucker Emilio Fernandez said Maricle's staff threatened him with arrest when he kept demanding a refund of his $9,550 deposit.

"The last time, somebody over there [told] me, 'You come in here again, I'm calling the police,' " Fernandez said.

Joseph Barretto said he was kept outside Global's offices the last time he showed up asking for a refund. "They had to bring a person outside to speak with me in the parking lot."

Maricle says his disputes with other clients have prompted him to call police twice, including an incident when a truck driver threatened to kill him and members of his family.

"I think sometimes it's almost like the little child that got caught by Mom and Dad, and they throw the tantrum. But I can tell you, we made sure that we took that child, if that's how they were acting, and we still tried to give them compassion, we still tried to worth them and move them forward and get them what they needed."

Clearwater police issued a trespass warning to Global client Gilbert Vasile after Maricle told officers Vasile "was completely irrational with his words and extremely argumentative," according to a police report.

According to police records, Clearwater detectives went on to investigate Vasile's complaint that after giving Global a $6,000 deposit, "they kept claiming they needed additional documents and they rarely returned his calls."

In May, Clearwater detectives referred Vasile's case to the Pinellas County State Attorney's Office for possible prosecution.

Reporter Mark Douglas can be reached at mdouglas@wfla.com or (727) 536-9603.

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