I need some advice on what to tell one of my good clients.  I've been working with this client for years, we're now good friends.  But now there is a situation where my friend can lose allot of money.  I feel responsible somewhat because I introduced him to the person he's having problems with at this time.

Two years ago another friend of mine brought to me a development deal.  He had just received his real estate license and was working with a pretty reputable broker.  At that time he came across a great piece of property and asked me if I knew anyone who was looking to invest.   I thought of my friend that I had worked with over the past few years and gave him a call.  Soon my real estate friend and my investor friend were working on this development deal.

So the agent made the offer himself, later he assigned the purchase contract to my friend the investor.  The settlement date came and went without them closing.  There was some question to water rights and according to my agent friend the deal was still in limbo and on  hold.  That was 18 months ago!  My agent friend (no longer), has continued to string along my investor friend.  He asked for over 40k in funds during the beginning of this transaction, most of these funds were sunk into engineering costs.  The agent even put together a signed agreement between my friend and him in regards to the business arrangement, in which he gave interest in his company and the project to my investor friend.

Long story short, I've found out that the agent was involved in another project locally which cost a Vegas investor over 1 million dollars.  It seems that the Vegas investor closed on a deal where the real estate agent was acting as co-developer and the agent.  The agent got a 129k commission, and the other developer found out that the agent hand't completed certain development requirements with the city.  This cost this investor/developer over a million hard ones.

My friend is only owed about 40k now with interest.  He's wondering if it's to late to go after the agent personally.  I suggested he speak to an attorney and go after the real estate brokerage because this guy is out of control and it's obvious that his broker is unaware or doesn't care what this agent is doing to his clients.

Can anyone suggest to me the best way to go after this agent.  I'm sure many of you get upset like I do when I hear about dishonest mortgage brokers.  So any help at this point would be very appreciated.  If you don't want to respond in a comment, please email me your response.

karlchristen@gmail.com

FYI...one reason we want to go after the brokerage first is that this agent is pretty savvy when it comes to hiding his assetts.  His house is in his wifes name, and he knows every trick in the book in terms of hiding his assetts.  The reason I know him is because we worked long ago at the same collection agency.  So he knows better then anyone in terms of hiding from creditors.