Investigators focus on loan company claiming N. Chas. ties

Desiree Wenning and her husband desperately searched for a loan so they could afford to move from Ohio to North Carolina for the expert cancer treatment she needs to stay alive. But with marginal credit, their chances seemed bleak.

The Wennings thought their prayers had been answered when they received a call from Richfield Lending of North Charleston offering to loan them $15,000 in return for an up-front fee. The couple quickly wired off $4,000 in two payments this month. In return, the Wennings said they received ... nothing.

Desiree Wenning, 30 years old and with Stage 3 Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, doesn't know now how she will ever afford to get to Duke University Hospital for her treatment. As it is, she and her electrician husband are taking cash advances on his paycheck just to afford food for their five kids after losing their savings to Richfield.

"I don't know what we're going to do," Wenning said Wednesday, her voice choking with emotion.

Wenning is one several customers who have filed formal complaints against Richfield after losing thousands of dollars in an alleged loan scheme that targets people with shaky credit, authorities said. North Charleston police and U.S. Secret Service agents are investigating, but they seem to be chasing a ghost, said police Sgt. Joyce Smith, a fraud investigator.

The company lists its address on Faber Place Drive in North Charleston, but it has no offices there and none of the property managers have heard of Richfield Lending, Smith said. It also has no business license to operate in the city.

"I haven't been able to get close to this company," Smith said. "It doesn't exist."

Ten customers from New York to California complained that they put up $800 or more but received nothing in return after wiring cash to Richfield's representatives, Smith said. Some of the lost money appears to have ended up in Canada, she said.

Richfield representatives did not return phone calls on Wednesday or respond to an e-mail inquiry sent to its Web site.

Thomas Judd, a correctional officer from New Jersey, said he lost $1,500 in his dealings with the company. Judd, a father of three, said he was short on cash and seeking a $5,000 loan to cover his rent and help his family stay afloat for a few months. A Richfield representative called him last week after Judd filled out an application on the Internet, he said.

Judd said the man told him he would get the loan, but he first needed to put up some money as collateral. Judd sent two payments, as he was told, but the loan didn't appear. He pleaded for his money back, but to no avail, he said.

"Now, I don't have money to pay the rent and I have to go to court tomorrow," Judd said. "I'm just so aggravated by this situation."'

Judd was so angry that he considered driving to North Charleston to confront company officials face-to-face. Luckily, he decided to call a cousin in South Carolina first to check on the business. The cousin went over to Faber Place Drive on a lunch break to find the third-floor suite that the Richfield representative had provided as an address. "The building was there," Judd said. "But there is no third floor."

Customers were apparently recruited through e-mails or phone calls from Richfield, authorities said. Once the money was wired, it could be retrieved from just about anywhere, making it difficult for investigators to track down the recipients. The company's e-mails are routed through Honduras and its faxes through a location in Clover, S.C., that investigators haven't located, Smith said.

The company seemed to appear on the scene this month, and the Better Business Bureau already has some 19 complaints pending against them, according to Chris Hadley with the bureau's Columbia office. The bureau has posted a notice of Richfield's business licensing issues as well as a warning about so-called "advance fee" scams.

John Kenney, resident agent in charge of the U.S. Secret Service in Charleston, said advance fee schemes are an all-too-common update on the old telemarketing scams that flourished north of the border. Legitimate brokers don't ask for advance fees or wired cash. They take their commission from the loan itself after it clears, he said.

Jane Carson of Indiana said Richfield's request for more than $6,000 in advance fees caused her to balk at a $60,000 loan the company offered her for a new home she wanted to buy. That, and the fact that a different woman answered her three return calls to the company, all claiming to be a broker named Cathy Foster, she said.

"Red flags were going off everywhere," said Carson, who is now reporting Richfield to every governmental agency she can find. "These people need to be stopped."

Reach Glenn Smith at 937-5556 or gsmith@postandcourier.com.