And another one's gone... and another one's gone.
But this one was 100% avoidable. The broker in this case is under investigation for securities fraud. Investors and creditors are owed more than $10 million.
The Vaughan Company was the single largest independent brokerage in New Mexico. This is a great example of a huge real estate firm that also..."didn't get it.... didn't do the right things." Dough Vaughan is going to turn out to be another Madoff in my opinion. It's sad to see this happen right here in my own home state of New Mexico, too. They're Chapter 11 and more than likely 100% toast. Tsk. Tsk. Another business statistic. And the sad part of all of this is that it NEVER had to turn out this way. The company was millions of dollars in debt and the founder, Douglas F. Vaughan is too. He filed for personal bankruptcy protection and left the firm. Then he was arrested for a revoked drivers license and then it goes from bad to worse... he was under investigation for fraud of securities violations, too. Here's the story. The firm has ZERO page one visibility on line and a crappy website at that. One of the worst I've seen in a long time. For some reason, they're linked to Leading Real Estate Companies of the World which sort of makes me question why they're adding their distinctive stamp on a website that looks like it was banged out the same McWebsite template that 10,000 others have. The irony of this is, the video for Leading Real Estate Companies of the World's CEO is featured on a video on the home page -- which firmly states "...when you see the Leading Estate of the World Logo... you can be assured you are working with the best of the best." Here's their video. See for yourself. Uh-huh. Right. Sure you are. I have no clue what kind of real estate Kool-aid you're drinking... but it's certainly giving you rose tinted glasses. Your logo is now attached to brokers who commit securities fraud. Gee, that's got to make your customers feel right at home.
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