Laura Ingraham
I listen to Laura almost every day on my drive to work, so I am not sure how I missed this news, which was posted on her website:
You know I hate Drama Kings or Queens, but I am asking for your prayers today and for the forseeable future. On Friday afternoon, I learned that I have joined the ever-growing group of American women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer. As so many breast cancer patients will tell you, it all came as a total shock. I am blessed to be surrounded by people who love me--my family, a wonderful fiance (if he thinks he's going to get out of marrying me because of this little blib, he's sadly mistaken!), my friends, and my church. I am absolutely blown away by how helpful and kind everyone has been--including total strangers who have experienced the same rollercoaster of emotions. The sisterhood of breast cancer survivors is inspiring. I am truly blessed. On Tuesday I will have an operation and within a few days will know more about the future. I am hopeful for a bright future and a "normal" life (well, scratch the "normal" part). Anyway, people have gone through much worse, and I know I'll obliterate this. I am thanking you in advance for your prayers. You are my family. And remember, I'll be back sooner than you think.
Prayers are easy to give. I know she'll get many, and she has mine.
posted by Lowell Brown at 1:40 PM
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7 Comments:
Praying with you Lowell -- here
Posted by John Schroeder (Blogotional)
I have built a web page so people can easily send Laura their thoughts and prayers. Please take a few moments to drop her a 'Get Well' note at:
http://www.thepublicview.com/laura/lauracancer.asp
I know she will appreciate it.
RWJones
Posted by RWJones
Published on www.ripoffreport.com
Kevin DeMeritt aka Lear Financial
Using Major US advertisers to allegedly deceive investors and employees allege widespread racial/ sexual harassment and other wrongful or illegal business practices Santa Monica California
Company: Lear Financial aka Kevin DeMeritt
429 Santa Monica Blvd. Ste. 440
Santa Monica California U.S.A. 90401
Phone: 800-965 0580
Fax: 310-656 3280
The following list of advertisers should drop Kevin DeMeritt, Lear Financial and Gold Central from their advertising spots for allegations of racial and sexual harassment as well as alleged criminal acts perpetrated against customers, potential customers and employees.
FOXNEWS Television
Rush Limbaugh radio
AM Coast to Coast radio / web with Art Bell
AM Coast to Coast radio / web with George Norrey
Michael Medved
Laura Ingraham
Dennis Prager
World Magazine and dozens of others
This partial list includes some of the largest and respected personalities in broadcasting, particularly from conservative, financial and religious radio, as many personally endorse Kevin DeMeritt, Lear Financial and Gold Central “on air”; touting Kevin DeMeritt, Lear Financial and other DeMeritt owned enterprises to millions of listeners, viewers or readers.
FOXNEWS Television, for example, broadcasts several of Kevin DeMeritt, Lear Financial and Gold Central's national commercials each business day with an actor from the TV show Law and Order who comforts the viewers with the promise that Lear will protect their investments and treat them fair.
In fact, according to many Lear Financial investors as well as former and current Kevin DeMeritt employees, for year's investors have been deceived and at least 3 Lear Financial employees have alleged open racial / sexual harassment by Kevin DeMeritt and Lear Financial. One former female employee of Lear Financial gave permission to publish the following information originally obtained from Rip Off Report under “Corrupt Companies”
[“Former Employee” of Kevin DeMeritt and Lear Financial]
Lear Financial - Gold Central - Buy Gold At Cost - Kevin DeMeritt crooks, dishonest sales and rip offs Santa Monica California
I am a minority woman who worked at Lear Financial for about one year. During this time employees were not reprimanded for screaming arguments regarding deals, potential deals and office politics. They were allowed to commonly use derogatory racial slurs and sexual vulgarity without consequence.
Other important points-
29 of 32 brokers were male.
28 of 32 brokers were white.
OPEN racial and sexual harassment.
NO standard selling or business procedures.
These are not financial brokers/advisors of any kind!
There are no required or accredited industry certifications (ie. series 7, series 63 etc.) of any kind to be hired as an “Account Manager”/broker.
When clients call, concerned about their coins, current coin evaluations or when attempting to sell they are given the run around.
Salesmen misrepresent fees by quoting “just a few percentage points” when actual fees are about 45%. Salesmen misrepresent coin recommendations - numismatics is not bullion, though many customers think their buying bullion.
Before purchasing from Lear Financial, aka Gold Central, aka Buy Gold at Cost – DON'T!
Former Employee
Los Angeles, California
U.S.A.
[End "Former Employee"]
Here's an excerpt of statements / comments by another Lear Financial female employee, supporting allegations of wide spread deception, open sexual harassment and other wrongful or illegal business's practices by Kevin DeMeritt and Lear Financial.
[Excerpt “a woman point of view”]
Kevin DeMeritt, Lear Financial - What I experienced at Lear Financial – Rip off Santa Monica California
My experiences at Lear Financial was not the best experience as an employee, in how I was treated or how I viewed the clients getting treated.
Kevin DeMeritt is greatest man in the world in the eyes of the companies he advertises with, “acting” very well educated and proper around them. But the longer I worked there I saw that in reality he was vocally intimidating to everyone in that office, using threating language or gestures that made people cower.
If they only knew that he has a very violent temper.
I have experienced that first hand. He screamed at me and other women many times. I cried at work many times, other women have as well, but there was no one to help us.
Kevin DeMeritt once screamed sexually vulgar profanities at a woman during dinner a company Christmas party, in front of maybe one hundred people.
As a woman you always felt tension in that office because it was mainly made up of men. Men that you can't say anything to because if you say the wrong thing and it got back to Kevin DeMeritt you got reprimanded, wrongfully.
Many times other woman I knew came to visit and one of the brokers or Kevin DeMeritt would say something sexually inappropriate to them. Kevin looks down on women, I don't know why. I remember talking to many other women who know Kevin, and we all share this same opinion.
The company in my opinion is based on a lot of deceit for both the client and employee.
Everyone in my personal life wanted me to quit or file my own lawsuit. I bet many can sue them, if they wanted to.
I do know that the brokers recorded clients because I heard them practice after work while listening to tapes with the clients (often making jokes or planning sales scams)that they had already pitched.
Many of those tapes lingered around in the office. As a matter of fact Kevin DeMeritt would use those tapes to train the new brokers. I have heard Kevin DeMeritt tell the brokers to tape their pitches and take them home and practices his pitches.
They lied a lot.
The client got sold and then they are forgotten about. In many instances the client will call the broker many times after they have been sold because they have a question in regards to their portfolio.
But many of the calls went unanswered. I witnessed brokers not wanting to deal with the aftermath of what they have done to the client. I felt bad because many clients are older people that feel they are safe investing but reality they are not.
Those brokers were so greedy that they don't care what happens to the client's portfolios once they have already gotten paid their commissions.
a woman point of view
Los Angeles , California
U.S.A.
[End excerpt "a woman point of view"]
Both woman responded to the Rip Off Report.com and since the following letter was published several others, citing similar and other wrongful business practices by Kevin DeMeritt and Lear Financial, have contacted Attorney Peter R. Dion-Kindem:
[Attorney letter to Kevin DeMeritt’s and Lear Financial customers]
Dear Lear Financial, Inc. Customer or Prospective Customer:
We represent a former employee of Lear Financial, Inc., a company that sells gold coins, other metals to individuals for their personal accounts and also for their IRA and other retirement accounts.
Our client has sued Lear and Kevin DeMeritt, its President, and other employees of Lear alleging that Lear and DeMeritt wrongfully terminated his employment in retaliation for his complaints about the widespread and systematic fraud and illegal tape recording of customers' phone calls perpetrated against Lear's customers, among other wrongful acts.
In the lawsuit, our client contends that Lear systematically misled its customers about the amount of commissions they were paying and overcharged them. Our client also contends that Lear also systematically violated the California Penal Code by unlawfully recording and eavesdropping on conversations between Lear salesmen and Lear customers without the customer's knowing consent. Under California law, Lear is subject to a $5,000 civil penalty payable to the customer for each such violation.
We have obtained a declaration from one Lear customer who has stated under oath that he was told that he was only being charged a 7% commission to purchase coins. The Lear documents we have obtained, however, reflect that he was charged 40%. We have obtained from Lear other documents reflecting that it charged another client 40%.
We are investigating whether you had a similar experience at Lear and would greatly appreciate it if you could call us to so that we could determine if you also were subject to Lear's wrongful conduct alleged by our client. I look forward to hearing from you in this regard.
Peter R. Dion-Kindem P.C.
Dion-Kindem & Crockett
WOODLAND HILLS , CALIFORNIA 91367
(818) 883-4400 Office
(818) 676-0246 Fax
[End Attorney letter]
Doug Hanes (invested $25,000), a Lear Financial investor, spoke to Kevin DeMeritt and the following is excerpts of Mr. Hanes's email that supports Lear Financial employee's allegations of wide spread misleading and deceptive sales practices as well as the often cited anger and dishonesty in which Kevin DeMeritt speaks to investors and employees.
[Doug Hanes excerpt dated April 4, 2007]
Mr. Dion-Kindem,
I received your letter dated March 29, 2007 asking about my dealings with Lear Financial. I had a very bad relationship with Kevin DeMeritt and Lear Financial and will assist in any way I can in your lawsuit against them.
I knew nothing of how the gold markets worked and I put my trust in a Lear salesman? I fell for his smooth talking and ended up sending over $25,000 to Lear Financial.
After about a month of additional research into the rare gold coin market, I realized I had been ripped off! I confronted Kevin DeMeritt on the phone and had a nice loud discussion with him about their sales methods of misleading their customers. He first tried to tell me these coins were premium quality and worth the extra money. I found out later from other sources that was a bunch of BS! DeMeritt's only defense was the "sales contract" that they had me sign which had a bunch of fine print in it about markups and other crap.
I published my experiences with Lear Financial on an eBay chat room and heard back from a few other customers who had similar experiences. One elderly gentleman wanted to buy over $80,000 worth of gold bullion (current gold coins that sell for the published market price of gold) and his Lear salesman talked him into buying a bunch of low-quality rare coins that were just as over-priced as mine. Instead, the old guy is going to lose a bunch of his retirement money.
So after talking to a few other people about getting ripped off by Lear, I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau in California . This quickly prompted a call from Kevin DeMeritt and we had another loud conversation about their misleading sales practices.
His response to the BBB was full of lies and contradictions. .. There was absolutely no way… ever told me they were marking up these coins by 40%!
I will be very willing to testify that Lear Financial engages in widespread and systematic fraud of their customers. I have a feeling you will hear from many more former customers who have had similar experiences.
Good luck and let me know how I can help! Doug Hanes.
[End Doug Hanes excerpt]
Other Lear Financial investors have come forward with similar experiences, such as an investor from Nevada that stated “I also bought gold from Lear - I think they are nothing but a bunch of crooks.”
Kevin DeMeritt has many business enterprises including ReferNow, other investment type companies and several income producing real estate properties. Kevin DeMeritt's many business enterprises are currently using US radio airways, US print, US wired sources and US television to advertise his private business interest.
US Advertising sources that have aired multi-spot ads dozens of times every day of the year, including weekends, for years, with Kevin DeMeritt, Lear Financial and Gold Central reaping the benefits or allegedly conducting illegal business activities, at the expense of others, which may include the American investor.
Less not forget Government agencies such a the US Postal services and US banking institutions that have unknowingly moved hundreds of millions of investment dollars due to what many allege as the wrongful, illegal or criminal activities of Kevin DeMeritt, Lear Financial and Gold Central.
Lear investors and former employees
Aurora, Las Vegas Santa Monica, Los Angeles & other cities
U.S.A.
Lear Financial the self proclaimed, "industry leader" and according to Kevin DeMeritt, president of Lear Financial, "a leading precious metals company to investors and institutional clients."
PART 2 in a SERIES: Of the 7 Los Angeles County Gold Companies researched, Lear Financial ranks last in each of the following categories:
1. The Better Business Bureau Rating
2. Years in Business
3. Published Coin Fees
The summary of the language used by the Better Business Bureau ratings state, in part: The rating the Better Business Bureau assigns a business is determined by our composite score of such factors as its type of business, length of time in business, compliance with competency licensing requirements, complaint volume, complaint history, seriousness of complaints, how the company responds to complaints and our experience with the company's industry in general.
The scoring system takes into account the importance we feel each factor is to the company's reliability. The highest rating assigned to a company is AAA; the lowest is F. Between those two ratings are nine others in order from higher to lower.
The ratings are defined as follows:
AAA - An exemplary rating.
AA - An extremely high rating.
A - An excellent rating.
BBB - A very high rating.
BB - A high rating.
B - A good rating that still implies reputability.
CCC - A good rating.
CC - Average rating.
C - Acceptable rating.
D - Enough concerns that we recommend caution in doing business with it.
F -We strongly question the company's reliability for several reasons.
The Better Business Bureau Rating (AAA down to F) of 7 gold companies:
1. AA - A Mark Precious Metals; Santa Monica, CA
2. AA - California Numismatics; Torrance, CA
3. AA - Gold Investment Group; Marina del Ray, CA
4. A - Wilshire Coin; Santa Monica, CA
5. A - Merit Financial; Santa Monica, CA
6. BB - Goldline International; Santa Monica, CA
7. B - Lear Financial Inc.; Santa Monica, CA
The Better Business Bureau rated 6 similar gold companies higher than Lear Financial yet, still Kevin DeMeritt states "For the last ten years, Lear has been a leader in the precious metals industry, consistently getting the highest reviews for quality, integrity and customer service" although all 6 companies have been in business longer.
Ranked by the Years in Business
1. 1960 - Goldline International
2. 1965 - A Mark Precious Metals
3. 1974 - Wilshire Coin
4. 1980 - California Numismatics
5. 1986 - Merit Financial
6. 1995 - Gold Investment Group
7. 1997 - Lear Financial Inc.
Kevin DeMeritt further states, "to address the specific point of fees, each contract discloses the average fees or spread associated with any rare coin purchase. That spread can be 17% to 33% of the purchase price. These fees are standard in this very competitive industry and clearly made known to each buyer. These fees are charged once upon purchase and, contrary to what some other gold companies do, we charge no fees at the time a customer wishes to sell."
Ranked by published coin fees (over a dozen coins compared)
1. Wilshire Coin
2. Merit Financial
3. California Numismatics
4. Gold Investment Group
5. A Mark Precious Metals
6. Goldline International
7. Lear Financial Inc.
Kevin DeMeritt has several other business enterprises doing business at the same location as Lear and transacting via the inter-net and telephone. Lear receives funds via US mail, bank wire, personal checks, money orders, credit cards, cash and financial rollovers.
Additionally, there are allegations and lawsuits vs. Lear Financial claiming widespread and systematic fraud against it customers and illegal tape recording of customers' phone calls perpetrated against its customers, among other wrongful acts.
The claims contend that Lear systematically misled its customers about the amount of commissions they were paying and overcharged them. As well instructs its employees as to how to mislead its customers. Documents and audio tapes have been obtained to support this specific allegation as well several customers have come forward with supporting evidence.
The claims also state that Lear systematically violated the California Penal Code by unlawfully recording and eavesdropping on conversations between Lear salesmen and Lear customers without the customer's knowing consent and instructed their employees to record and eavesdrop on conversations without all parties knowing consent. Many copies of tape recordings have been obtained to support this allegation.
We are investigating whether you had a similar experience at Lear and would greatly appreciate it if you could call us to so that we could determine if you also were subject to the alleged wrongful conduct. We look forward to hearing from you in this regard. Dion-Kindem & Crockett, Woodland Hills California.
Lastly, for those who are waiting to hear from an attorney please be patient, response time may be hindered by our responsibility to acknowledge; research and secure accurate information.
I made the mistake and bought Gold coins from Lear Financial. I realized I had made the mistake and they spent 3 hours on the telephone with me trying to convince me otherwise. I would not sign the Shipping Transaction and they said if I didn't I would not get my gold coins. This company is a scam company. Please do not buy Gold from them. They will talk you into buying coins.
They charge 32 percent. It is a rip off company. They are smooth talkers.
PLEASE DO NOT BUY FROM THIS COMPANY.
Anonymous says they charge 32 percent.
So what?
When you buy a pair of tennis shoes or shirt or couch or car...how much do you think their markup is? 300 percent !
Why do you have such a second standard for gold traders?
How much commission do you think your stock broker gets each month?
Compare, my friend, compare. Gold is a steal right now, buy all you can.
Try to spend between 3 and 6% over spot. That's fair to everybody. How much do you deserve for being a middle-man?
By the way, stay away from Goldline too. They are major con artists.
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