Below is the article on my former company Flagler Title Company, Most of you know whats going on and some of you dont.(Please read previous blog) Here is an update about whats going on below. I love how the post writer added the qoute below about "The $64,000 question is what would cause that person to walk away?" If anyone out there might even remotely have a answer for that, please inform me!!!
Millions missing at title company
By PAUL QUINLAN
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Monday, June 16, 2008
WEST PALM BEACH - Before his disappearance plunged employees and customers of one of Florida's largest independent title companies into chaos last week, Flagler Title founder Roger Gamblin dipped into millions of dollars his company held in escrow for clients, according to testimony Monday.
An auditor for one of the insurance companies backing Flagler Title testified in an emergency hearing that Roger Gamblin had used at least $2.5 million of escrow funds to cover shortfalls and pay property taxes and as a "personal line of credit."
Gamblin also recently refinanced the second mortgage on his home to the tune of $500,000, an investigator told the court.
The last anyone heard from him was a telephone call on May 29.
A judge placed Flagler Title in receivership Monday at the request of its insurance underwriters, who have been left to clean up the mess. The insurers were even forced to post security guards last week at some offices to ward of looting by disgruntled employees.
But even as details of Gamblin's last known whereabouts emerged in Palm Beach County Circuit Court, exactly what happened to the 59-year-old remains unknown. It's the subject of intense speculation fueled by Gamblin's friendship with another missing man: Jim Trindade.
Trindade, an avid fisherman, outdoorsman and friend of Gamblin's for at least 30 years, disappeared Jan. 12, 2006, while boating home from a vacation to the Bahamas. His 38-foot Donzi, a go-fast boat that had been used in filming the recent remake of Miami Vice, was found doing circles in the ocean, its owner missing.
Gamblin immediately launched and paid for an extensive search effort for his friend.
Federal investigators believe Trindade had stumbled on a drug transaction at sea between the Bahamas and Palm Beach County, was killed and then was dumped in the ocean. They also believe Gamblin's son Chris, who was traveling in a boat near Trindade's that day, may have been involved. Gamblin has always insisted his son is innocent.
Fast-foward more than two years. The first sign that Flagler Title was unraveling came on May 22, when the company's vice president, Edward Bierce, abruptly resigned. He has not been seen or heard from since, according to an affidavit the insurance company's investigator filed in court.
That day, Gamblin told his operations manager, Bill Mechesney, he was going to a doctor's appointment in Miami Beach and left the office. He never made it. The doctor filed a missing person's report.
That was the last time anyone saw Gamblin, according to the investigator.
One week later, Mechesney received a phone call from Gamblin, who told him that he and his wife, Peggy, were finishing a business trip in New York and were getting ready to take a cruise. He didn't say where. He asked Mechesney to put together two letters of recommendation for his sons, both of whom had worked for Flagler Title.
Mechesney later learned Gamblin instead had chartered a private jet to fly from West Palm Beach to Houston on May 25, the affidavit said.
Family members say they haven't heard from the couple, according to the investigator's report.
Peggy Gamblin's sister, Nancy Weiss, said she has not heard from Peggy, even though the two had kept in near-daily contact, investigators reported. Peggy Gamblin didn't call when Weiss recently celebrated her birthday.
Gamblin's sons, Erik and Chris, deny knowing where their father is, according to the report, and the cars usually parked at Gamblin's West Palm Beach home are gone.
Those were the facts that attorneys for three title insurance companies that backed Flagler Title presented to Circuit Judge Tom Barkdull, who granted the insurance companies' request to appoint Fort Lauderdale attorney Larry Saicheck as receiver.
Saicheck will effectively take over at Flagler Title to inventory and secure assets and files, determine which obligations can be met and decide whether to steer the company into bankruptcy.
Prospects for customers who had placed millions of dollars in Flagler Title's hands are uncertain.
"For what it's worth, I expect this to end pretty quickly," attorney Jeffrey Schneider of Ticor Title Insurance told the judge.
Flagler Title employees learned in a conference call last week that the company had run out of money and that their mid-June paycheck would not arrive, a former employee said Monday.
"There were some very disgruntled people on that call," said the employee, who asked to remain anonymous.
Reports of furniture and electronic equipment being taken from one of the offices prompted the insurance underwriters to post security guards at some Flagler Title locations to ward off looters, said Aaron Wong, attorney for Lawyers Title Insurance.
"It's a big mess," Wong said.
Although the lawyers involved in the case are not drawing a connection between Gamblin's and Trindade's disappearances, they remain baffled as to why the head of a successful title company would suddenly vanish.
Founded in 1976, Flagler Title calls itself Palm Beach County's oldest locally owned title company, maintaining at least seven offices across the region, from Port St. Lucie to Boynton Beach.
Wong said the company handled between 30 and 40 closings per month even in today's dour real estate market.
"He had a good business going," said Wong. "The $64,000 question is what would cause that person to walk away?"
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