About this blog

First, nothing here is legal advice or accounting advice, or any kind of advice at all.  It is just a place for people to share links they find. 

There are two excellent sources that already exist for information about HL Leasing.  

The first is http://www.leasingnews.org, a site that originally broke the story about the possibility that HL Leasing was an alleged ponzi scheme.  A very detailed and recent post can be found here.  In fact, Kit Menkin's leasingnews.org is such a valuable source of information that anybody seriously interested in getting a feel for historical and current news coverage of John Otto should click this link to all of the pages on leasingnews discussing John Otto.  Similar lists of leasingnews coverage can and should also be generated for HL Leasing, Heritage Pacific Leasing, and Centerpoint Financial.

The second source is http://johnottohlleasing.blogspot.com,  and there are well over 100 comments on one of the pages of that blog sharing information.

We do not want this blog to replace the johnottohlleasing blog, which is a great central point of contact.  This blog is for the creation of specific entries with information that people learn, organized by subject.  So this is more of a site for people to share their investigation leads.

The hope is that there are a lot of people looking at this and everybody is researching it in their own way, but by compiling and organizing what people find, the path to figuring out what happened will be shortened.

You should assume that if there were co-conspirators (I'm not saying that there were, opinions on the other blog seem to differ), they are reading these blogs.  So of course, some things should be sent to law enforcement and not posted (if you think think that the information will just end up leading the co-conspirators to move an asset you find, for example).  Also don't post anything confidential learned from your lawyers without clearing it with them first.

Anyhow, please post comments on this page listing other sources of information (i.e. other blogs, etc.).  We will try to incorporate the comments into the main body of the entry (so for example, if somebody puts a link to a copy of a lease assignment in the comments to the entry about locating assets, we will try to incorporate that into the main entry on the topic). Please be patient if incorporating the information takes some time.

We are going to try to keep the body of the entries accurate, so guesses and unsourced information put into the comments may be good leads for research, but will stay in the comments until somebody comes up with a link or a source.

Kathleen J. Otto Information

From public sources, apparently the spouse of John Otto.  

Kathleen J. Otto, born October 1941 (all unconfirmed; no confirming link found).  Per Intellus (click "Kathleen J Otto" link on the page in this link), she is 67 years old with addresses in Fresno, Palm Desert, and possibly Jamestown, ND.  She is listed as having relatives "Margaret L. Otto, John W. Otto, and Kathy Otto".  Kathleen Otto was listed as a "Member" of Centerpoint Financial Services, LLC., which this article says sold a majority interest to John Otto in 1997.

Information on Lynn Haynes

According to a post made at this link on June 1, 2009 at 4:16 pm, John Otto had some connection to Lynn Haynes.  The post says: "Her name is Lynn Haynes and her telephone number is 760-832-4079 and available in public records. According to Any Frernandex she was his assistant since the mid 1990's."  Note that "Any Frernandex" looks like it might have been a typo for Andy Fernandez.

No verification of any of this is yet available.  I have no idea if there is any connection or link between Lynn Haynes and John Otto.

Leads to possible sources of more information

According to this letter which purports to be from John Otto but is not signed, John Otto claims that "we have completed 3 securitizations with a New York Stock Exchange brokerage firm, for large blocks of leases, all with attorney opinions, insurance, rating by Moddy's, and sold as debt instruments at an average rate of 7%."  

The same letter also says that "HL does on occasion provide financial statements and tax returns to a limited number of banks, funding sources, individuals and corporations upon request".  If true, somebody should have copies of old tax returns for HL Leasing.  Those would be INVALUABLE in figuring out what was happening.  Please post a link in the comments or email comment9345@gmail.com.

The same letter also says that "To my knowledge we have never given out my personal financial statement and tax returns to anyone, other than banks that provide us with lines of credit.  I was truly amazed to find out that you were given and possess such information."  If anybody reading this has a copy of those that were obtained illegally, please do not post a link to them.  If anybody reading this has a copy that was obtained legally, however, please post a link or email comment9345@gmail.com.

According to flightaware.com, Air Fred's jet, tail number N725CC, left the United States only once in the months before John Otto's suicide -- a round trip to Canada the day before he died.  The plane flew from Palm Springs to Victoria International, arriving in Canada at 2:03 pm and leaving Canada for Palm Springs a little more than an hour later at 3:09 pm on May 10.  Somebody needs to figure out who or what John Otto's company's aircraft dropped off in Canada the day before John Otto's suicide.  If it is just a coincidence, that would be nice to know.

Information on Norma Lewis

Unconfirmed (no link):  Dun & Bradstreet lists "Norma J Lewis" as a President and Director of Manufacturers Acceptance Corporation from 1996 to the present.

Norma Lewis was listed as "President" of "Heritage Pacific Leasing" on the heritage-pacific.com website on November 27, 2001, November 27, 2002, December 4, 2004, April 3, 2005, and several in many other archives available here.  The September 2, 2006 archive of that website no longer shows her listed with that title.

The Better Business Bureau lists Norma Lewis as "Vice President" of Heritage Pacific Leasing.

Searching http://www.criis.com/fresno/srecord_current.shtml for transactions with the last name "Lewis" and first name "Norma" shows:

(a) A 11/29/06 transaction (document 025049500) where "Lewis Norma" entered into "assignment" of some kind with "Heritage Investments".  

(b) "Lewis Norma" and "Ramirez Daniel" (and others) entered into a "deed of trust" and "asgt rents" with "Gregory K. Gostanian" on 10/10/03 (documents 02426301 and 024626302).  

(c) "Lewis Norma J", "Fernandez Oscar", "Bank of New York Tr",  and an enormous number of others entered into a "release" with "Fresno CY" on 1/2/09 (document 000045800).  

(d) "Lewis Norma J" and "Lewis Norman R" entered into a "reconveyance" and "substitution" on 6/22/04 (documents 013722002 and 013722001).  

(e) There are numerous other recorded documents at that URL that show up in a search.

Unverified that she was born in 1944.

She is listed together with Andy Fernandez and John Otto in this link, in an entry that also references Centerpoint Financial, Services Limited Liability, and Gold Star Funding Co Llc.

information on Danny Ramirez

The California Employment Development Department web site lists him as "President" of "HL Leasing".  He is also listed by the Arkansas Secretary of State as the "President" of HL Leasing.

As recently as April 19, 2006 he was listed as "President - HL Leasing" on the Heritage Pacific Leasing site at http://www.heritage-pacific.com/ (see various archived copies here).

Links that don't fit anywhere specific yet

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/Aug/25/real-estate-transactions-82408/ Real estate transactions "$50,000 and under", "Manufacturers Acceptance Corp. to Jack Roberts, Brenda Roberts and Larry Dunn, on Three Points Road, $37,000."  Is this the Otto Manufacturers Acceptance Corp, and if so, why were they doing real estate transactions in Knoxville, TN in 2008?

http://www.hotwalkers.com/financing.shtml says that "if leasing is desired, we offer leasing through ... Heritage Pacific Leasing" (among others).

Corporate Entities

This is barebones right now, although I do have a lot of the links and just need to get them organized.

According to this document, John Otto owned "100% of the stock of HL Leasing, Heritage Pacific Leasing, Manufacturers Acceptance Corp. and Centerpoint Financial Services, and many other companies" as of July 28, 2008.  This is an odd statement for the owner of those companies to make, given that Heritage Pacific Leasing and Manufacturers Acceptance Corporation are the same company (see below).

HL LEASING, INC.:  A California corporation, registered at some point with several states, including until February 2009, Florida, to do business there.  Also, filed as a creditor in the Constable bankruptcy case (8-08-76313-dte, judge Dorothy Eisenberg, filing # 6110054) calling themselves "HL Leasing successor to Heritage Pacific Leasing".  

HL Leasing, Inc. held California State Board of Equalization permit number 1007260628 but when you run a search on the official site for that permit number, the site returns this notice:  "Permit Number 100720628 is Closed and is not valid after the closed date".  The "closed date" is listed as 06/30/2007.

HERITAGE PACIFIC LEASING:  A fictitious business name for Manufacturers Acceptance Corporation.  The name may also have been used in conjunction with real estate lending.  Was listed with Manufacturers Acceptance Corporation as a lender on a deed of trust holding a mortgage.  (search here for document 008807900 recorded 4-22-04).  Heritage Pac Leasing was also listed on a deed of trust document 02665001 recorded 9-2-05.   Heritage pacific Leasing was also listed as receiving notice on a mortgage notice of default on 6/20/07, document 406752, trustee sale number 07-7249 for property at 69391 Dillon Rd. in Desert Hot Springs, CA (Riverside) (more details here or here).  Does anybody know if they were licensed to make real estate loans?

There is also a reference to a Georgia Office, listing 3104 Habersham Hills Rd., Cumming GA 30041 as the address and listing a single person as the salesperson there.  The phone numbers given were 800-764-1457, 678-513-5167, and a fax number of 678-623-3730.  The aerial view looks like it is a house, and it is listed here for sale for $269,900 as a house.  It is APN 199-000-038 and appears to be owned by the salesperson and not by any Otto-related entity. 

There is also a reference to a Texas Office, listing 401 E. Corporate Drive, Suite 250 Lewisville TX 75057 as the address, listing Ron Mitchell as the "regional sales manager" and "Fred Fernandez" as "Corporate Support".  The phone numbers listed are 800-994-1672, 972-219-0223, and fax 972-219-0408.  The address appears on google maps to be a corporate office.  This office appears to have had at least leasing customers in Texas.  Note that this site also lists "Elizabeth Rose" as "Documentation" for the Texas office.

Thanks to an anonymous commenter, we have additional information about an apparent branch office in Minneapolis.  This link quotes Tom Quilling as saying "In January of 2002, I joined John Otto at Heritage Pacific Leasing and opened a branch office in Minneapolis.”  The comment also says that "Tom's office is at 5353 Gamble Drive, Suite 150 Minneapolis, MN 55416; His telephone number is (952) 545-0102".   This site lists a "Senior Account Manager" located in Minneapolis.  There is a Tom Quilling Sales Inc. listed at that address, and this site lists "Heritage Pacific Leasing" at that address and with that phone number.  The leasing news also has a second link with more information.

Their websites include hplone.com and heritage-pacific.com.  The registrant (i.e. owner) of the hplone.com domain name is "Heritage Pacific Leasing, 3939 W. Shaw Ave Fresno California 93711".  The administrative and technical contact is "Lopez, Rick rickl@heritage-pacific.com".  The domain is registered through godaddy.com.  The information for heritage-pacific.com is identical.  The information for flyairfred.com is identical.

"Heritage Pacific Leasing (Manufacturers Acceptance Corporation, DBA)" apparently holds an "Active License", license number 6071137 issued "Sep 19 1996 (Lender/Broker)", license type "California Finance Lender".

MANUFACTURERS ACCEPTANCE CORPORATION:  Shares a lot of the same people, addresses, and connections with HL Leasing, Inc.   Heritage Pacific Leasing is listed as a fictitious business name for them.  They are listed as the "Owner" of an apparently currently valid California State Board of Equalization permit number 099866498, which is listed as "Business Name: Heritage Pacific Leasing" and "Start Date: 01/02/1996".

MANUFACTURERS ACCEPTANCE CORPORATION (TENNESSEE): A company with this name is listed in a bankruptcy case in Tennessee (the Hylton bankruptcy, 09-30168 Eastern District of Tennessee) as having an address at 200 W 5th Ave., Knoxville, TN 37917-7402.  They claim to hold a debt secured by a 2000 Plymouth van, and made a filing in the case on 2/5/09.  The attorney they used is Wade Boswell, PO Box 221, Knoxville, TN 37901, 865-633-5353.  Without seeing more, it would be hard to tell whether this company is related to Otto or simply shares a similar name.

HERITAGE LEASING OF FRESNO:  A fictitious business name for John W. Otto, filed 4/6/92 with identification number 29210001346.

HL LEASING (Malaysia)/"HL Leasing Sdn Bhd": Shares a name similar to HL Leasing of Fresno and shows up in google searches for "HL Leasing".  No connection to Otto or Fresno known.  

HANG LUNG PROPERTIES LIMITED:  The website hlleasing.com is owned by "Amoy Properties Limited" in Hong Kong, with an administrative contact at Hang Lung Properties Limited.  Seems unrelated to anything relevant.

HANOVER HL LEASING GMBH: Shares a name similar to HL Leasing of Fresno and shows up in google searches for "HL Leasing".  No connection to Otto or Fresno known.

CENTERPOINT FINANCIAL SERVICES, LLC:  A company Otto was previously involved with.  He is said to have purchased a majority interest in 1997.  According to http://www.leasingnews.org/Conscious-Top%20Stories/Gordon_Roberts.htm, Mr. Roberts, who was the "manager of Centerpoint Financial Services from January 97 to April 2003", was charged with using "Centerpoint money to pay $12,000 on his truck loan," and "$68,000 of Centerpoint money to pay off his home mortgage". The California State Board of Equalization lists Centerpoint Financial Svc LLC as holding currently valid permit 097084900, with a start date of 05/07/1997.

INDIAN RIVER TRANSPORT CO. DOING BUSINESS AS HERITAGE LEASING:  A case in Houston (4:07-cv-01160) lists one of the defendants as "Indian River Transport Co. doing business as Heritage Leasing".  No connection to Otto or Fresno known.

 AIR FRED:  Supposedly an independent LLC, it seems to have been treated in some ways as a division of Heritage Pacific Leasing, which itself is a fictitious business name for Manufacturers Acceptance Corporation.  For example, Air Fred has a web presence on the heritage-pacific.com website.  It has its own domain name as well, flyairfred.com, but that domain name is registered to (i.e. owned by) Heritage Pacific Leasing.

PACIFIC SERVICES I AND PACIFIC SERVICES II:  According to http://hplone.com/more.html, "In 1998, HPL created two wholly owned entities, Pacific Services I & II, to allow qualified individuals to invest in certain lease portfolios owned by HPL.  The activities of these two entities are licensed and regulated by the California Department of Corporations. "  According to the California Department of Corporations, the only entity licensed by the Financial Services Division of California with a name containing "pacific services" was Pacific Services I, LLC, 3439 West Shaw Ave. Fresno CA 93711.  That entity's license was 6071361, issued on March 31, 1998.  The site states that the entity was "No Longer Licensed as of 1/17/2003".

Information on Andy Fernandez

There is an Andy Fernandez who is a licensed CPA in inactive status.  License issued 12/5/80 with no disciplinary actions. Link is http://www2.dca.ca.gov/pls/wllpub/WLLQRYNA$LCEV2.QueryView?P_LICENSE_NUMBER=30886&P_LTE_ID=783

This link lists Andy Fernandez, with the same address as is on the CPA license page, as the agent for service of process for HL Leasing, Inc.

Andy Fernandez has been listed as a director of HL Leasing, as a Controller of HL Leasing, as Chairman of Manufacturers Acceptance Corporation dba Heritage Leasing, and as CFO of HL Leasing, Inc. (in a document he apparently signed which withdrew HL's authority to transact business in Florida on 2/4/09)

Is he related to Fred Fernandez, who is listed as "Corporate Support" for Heritage Pacific Leasing's Texas Office?  One anonymous post says they are unrelated.

Litigation and Investigations

This page lists the investigations and lawsuits involving HL Leasing, as well as the lawyers who have been mentioned in conjunction with conducting potential investigations or potentially filing lawsuits, as well as contact points for some government representatives.  This list is incomplete.  Feel free to add in the comments below. 

MASSOYAN V. HL: 

Vicken Massoyan v. HL Leasing, 09CEG01839 (docket indicates it is a suit for fraud, although the Fresno Bee reports it is a class action).  The bee story reports that the defendants named, in addition to HL Leasing, were "Heritage Pacific Leasing, HL Leasing president Dan Ramirez and executive vice president Norma Lewis; and Heritage Pacific chief financial officer Andy Fernandez".  Either the lawyers or the bee missed something important, because Heritage Pacific Leasing is a fictitious business name for Manufacturers Acceptance Corporation (this information was out there very early, just search for "dba" on this page).  

UPDATE:  A copy of the lawsuit can be viewed here.  They only name 10 "doe" defendants, they are going to need more.  They also failed to name Manufacturers Acceptance Corporation. 

Plaintiffs:  It is a class action, but there are two plaintiff identified by name.  The first is "Vicken Massoyan".  Linkedin says Vicken Massoyan is a "Graphic Designer at Vaneno/Bitney, Fresno, California Area" in the "Marketing and Advertising" industry.  Vicken Massoyan also has this link, but otherwise there is not much information on google.  Maggie Antaramian also has little information on google.  I doubt that this facebook link is her.  

UPDATE:  Contact information for the law firm that filed it is as follows:

Attention: Toni Stevens [UPDATE: Toni Stevens substituted for Jennifer Wang]

c/o Cotchett, Pitre and McCarthy Law Firm

840 Malcolm Road #200

Burlingame, CA 94010

650-697-6000

ajabagchourian@cpmlegal.com

STATE OF CALIFORNIA INVESTIGATION

Karen Patterson with the California Department of Corporations is said to be investigating, 916-322-6737.

A complaint form is available at http://www.corp.ca.gov/ENF/complaint.asp.

FEDERAL INVESTIGATION

The FBI is also said to be involved.

The FBI is active in Fresno and Sacramento, but I understand that the FBI prefers to be contacted through the Sacramento office as follows:

FBI Sacramento Office

Steve Dupre

4500 Orange Grove

Sacramento, CA 95841-4205

916-481-9110

ATTORNEYS NOT MENTIONED ABOVE:

Donald Fischbach, dfischbach@daklaw.com, 559-432-4500, held a meeting regarding pursuing claims against HL Leasing.

Tom McCurnin, tmccurnin@bkolaw.com, 213-617-6129, mentioned in this blog comment as potentially working with investors.

WEB SITES TO CONTACT YOUR ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES AND OTHER GOVERNMENT AGENCIES:

http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset7text.htm

http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW_by_State.shtml

http://gov.ca.gov/interact

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm?State=CA

http://financialservices.house.gov/

http://www.usdoj.gov/ag/

Possible current assets

This is a place to post leads on assets.  Some of the assets might be owned by companies that share common ownership with HL Leasing, but are legally separate, or by people who are not associated with HL Leasing, so do not assume that all of the assets here can be treated as if they are HL Leasing's assets or John Otto's assets.  You will need to get that kind of legal or accounting advice from your lawyer or accountant.

LEASES:  

1. Pentech leases possibly acquired by HL Leasing for $2.7 million on December 30, 2005:  There was a hearing scheduled for HL Leasing's lawyers to attend on May 26, 2009 in a case in New York called "In re John Richard Constable, Debtor, HL Leasing, Inc., Plaintiff against John Richard Constable", Case 08-76313 and 8-09-08030.  In that case, one of the exhibits to the complaint filed by HL Leasing was an assignment of leases from Pentech to HL Leasing.  Some of the leases were not supposed to expire until almost 2011, and it appears possible (since HL Leasing was scheduled to be at a hearing today as part of their lawsuit to enforce one of the leases) that some of the leases still belong to HL Leasing.   (link to the notice of hearing might not remain valid after today).  UPDATE: The pretrial conference was set for 5/28/09 at 10:00 am. (again note that these court web pages are updated frequently, so the information might not be there if you are clicking the links too long after they were posted).

2. Municipal Leases:  The heritage-pacific site marketed to municipalities, saying they "understand the difficult and complex credit and financing requirements of municipalities," and that they offer "conventional financial instruments commonly used to finance everything from vehicles to facilities or office equipment."  Since government contracts should be a matter of public record in most cases, it would be easy for somebody to send a California Public Records Act request to all of the municipalities in California asking for copies of any leases with any Otto entity.

REAL ESTATE

1. 49355 Sunrose Ln. Palm Desert 92260 (link and mortgage information needed) (apparently personally owned, not corporate).

2. Ownership of office space to be added.

OTHER COMPANIES

1. Aircraft charter operation, Air Fred.  FAA documents (identical copies) can be found here and here.  Note that "Air Fred, LLC" signed the document for the Cessna Citation by having Andy Fernandez sign as "Chief Financial Officer of Manufacturer's Acceptance Corp. Inc dba Heritage Pacific Leasing, member".  This seems to indicate that Manufacturer's Acceptance Corp. is a member of Air Fred, LLC.  So it appears that Manufacturer's Acceptance Corporation is the owner (or one of the owners) of Air Fred, LLC.  Original source linked here.  Another oddity is that the aircraft registration application dated 1/25/08 is filed on behalf of a "corporation", but the applicant is "Air Fred, LLC", yet the signature is done on behalf of an individual (signed as "owner").  This raises a question as to whether there is a lack of separation between the corporate identities of Air Fred, Manufacturer's Acceptance Corporation dba Heritage Pacific Leasing and the individual signatory.

John Otto Information

Born: July 23, 1941 (unconfirmed)

Education-college: According to plaxo.com, graduated Harvard in 1963.  This looks to be false. Harvard records show no "John Otto" graduating in 1963.  The only John Otto who ever graduated Harvard was a 1989 graduate of Harvard Business School.  The only "Otto's" from around 1963 were a "Dr. David Otto" graduating Harvard College in 1963 and "Philip Otto" graduating Harvard Business School in 1965. (source may be incomplete; computerized records were probably scanned in from paper, so scanning errors could make computerized search inaccurate).

Education-prep: According to plaxo.com, graduated "Blake School/Upper School Northrop Campus" in 1959.  As of now, this is unconfirmed.

Died: May 11, 2009

Spouse: Kathleen J. Otto, born October 1941 (all unconfirmed; no confirming link found).  Per Intellus (click "Kathleen J Otto" link on the page in this link), she is 67 years old with addresses in Fresno, Palm Desert, and possibly Jamestown, ND.  She is listed as having relatives "Margaret L. Otto, John W. Otto, and Kathy Otto".  Kathleen Otto was listed as a "Member" of Centerpoint Financial Services, LLC., which this article says sold a majority interest to John Otto in 1997.

Daughter: (has posted to a blog and claims to be uninvolved).

Other children:  Unknown

Addresses (unconfirmed):

49355 Sunrose Lane, Palm Desert, CA 92260

3439 W. Shaw Ave, Fresno CA 93711 (Heritage Pacific Leasing)

3724 W Beechwood Ave. Fresno, CA 93711 6/23/2000 (next to Sierra Skypark) (no longer owned; sold by John and Kathleen Otto deed document 014188500 20-NOV-00) (per Fresno County records, search at http://www.criis.com/fresno/official.shtml).

73146 Carrizo, Palm Desert, CA 92260 (no longer owned by Otto)

49180 Sunrose Lane, Palm Desert, CA 92260 (no longer owned by Otto)