Stephanie Hoffman & the Shills at JEDI

JEDI/Great Northern Confidence trick, aka "Scam", "Swindle"

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A confidence trick (synonyms include confidence game, confidence scheme, scam and stratagem) is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their confidence, used in the classical sense of trust.

A confidence trick is also known as a con game, a con, a scam, a grift, a hustle, or a bamboozle.

In the name of supposed "Economic Development", prospective victims (aka "investors") seeking help and advice from JEDI are guided to loans provided by Great Northern.

The intended victims (purchasers of a local Mt. Shasta Toy Store) are known as "marks", "suckers", or "gulls" (i.e. gullible).

When accomplices are employed, like Stephanie Hoffman and e-Jedi, they are known as shills.

The business loan from Great Northern allows the victims to pay higher purchase prices for businesses being sold by locals.   The locals are selling the businesses because they are bankrupt and failing.   
The financial statements of the businesses are Falsified to make the businesses appear profitable.
The Great Northern business loans enable local Mt. Shasta business people to become enriched by selling worthless businesses to people who are new to town.

The victims lives are destroyed in the process.  They are liquidated out of every cent they own today, and will ever earn in their lifetimes.  These loans cannot be discharged through bankruptcy.

It is the perfect Trap.

A long con or big con is a scam that unfolds over weeks.

 It aims to rob the victim of huge sums of money or valuable things, often by getting him or her to take CBDG loans from Great Northern Services of Weed, CA and emptying out banking accounts to purchase bankrupt businesses by Falsifying the financial statements provided to prospective Suckers.

Stages of the con[edit]

In Confessions of a Confidence Man, Edward H. Smith lists the "six definite steps or stages of growth" of a confidence game.^[6] He notes that some steps may be omitted.

Foundation Work

Preparations are made in advance of the game, including the hiring of any assistants required.

Approach

The victim is contacted.  

Build-up

The victim is given an opportunity to profit from a scheme. The victim's greed is encouraged, such that their rational judgment of the situation might be impaired.

Pay-off or Convincer

The victim receives a small payout as a demonstration of the scheme's effectiveness. This may be a real amount of money, or faked in some way. In a gambling con, the victim is allowed to win several small bets. In a stock market con, the victim is given fake dividends.

The Hurrah

A sudden crisis or change of events forces the victim to act immediately. This is the point at which the con succeeds or fails.

The In-and-In

A conspirator puts an amount of money into the same scheme as the victim. This can reassure the victim, and give the con man greater control when the deal has been completed.^{[clarification needed]}

In addition, some games require a "corroboration" step.^{[clarification needed][6]}

Vulnerability to confidence tricks[edit]

There is no consistent profile of a confidence trick victim; the common factor is simply that the victim relies on the good faith of the con artist.  Even alert and educated people may be taken in by other forms of a confidence trick.

Accomplices, also known as shills, like Stephanie Hoffman and JEDI, help manipulate the mark into accepting the perpetrator's plan.

How Investors are Treated in Siskiyou County

Future Mt. Shasta, after having burned those who brought help.

We brought money and jobs to the Mt. Shasta area and got ripped off.

Is this how Siskiyou County treats those who bring money and jobs to the area?






If true, that would explain why Siskiyou County is a de facto White Ghetto...complete with a low standard of living and a dependence on handouts or theft from others.
If this is how people are treated who bring money and jobs to the area, then Shasta/Siskiyou is doomed to a future as a White Ghetto.

Future photo of Mt. Shasta, after investors were ripped off.

We were treated like Shit

We are outraged.  

We are disgusted at how we have been treated in Mt. Shasta.  

We will tell others what was done to us.  We will not be silenced.

I feel like one of Bill Cosby's victims.

I’m the former owner of Geppetto’s Toy Shop in Mount Shasta.  It used to be located next to Ray’s Food Place.  

We bought the toy store in 2009 after moving to Mt. Shasta.  We brought money and skills with us to help build the area's economy.

We ended up getting burned really bad.  In fact, we were burned so bad that we lost everything we had in life...our house, our cars, our savings, and our retirement accounts.

We were loaded down with so much debt from the Scam that it's likely we will never recover.   The debt is non-dischargable through bankruptcy.  There is no way out.

To make matters worse, nobody seems to care what was done to us.   We've told quite a few people what happened, and not a single human being has supported us.   It's the saddest thing I've witnessed in my life.

I now have a perfect understanding of what Bill Cosby's victims have experienced:  1)Nobody believed them, 2) Victims were badmouthed, 3) it was their word against his.    Only when 40+ victims stepped forward did people start to slowly figure out what was going on:  The victims were telling the truth.

THEREFORE.....

We want to warn others about investing in Siskiyou County.   We want to tell others about what happened to us:

First, you'll lose your business when you realize it's worthless.

Second, you'll lose your house, which was put up as collateral for the business. 

Third, you'll lose all your savings trying to save yourself.

Fourth, you'll be badmouthed by the sellers, saying it was your fault.

We want to tell others about a clever system that allows insiders to swindle newcomers in scam deals.  After the ink is dry, you will realize you've been hoodwinked, and you'll come to the horrifying discovery that you've lost everything, while another human being now has all your money.

Learn about corruption in Siskiyou County economic development, and how the lives of newcomers are destroyed in pursuit of questionable economic gain.

You'll also discover that there is virtually nothing you can do.    In fact, if you try to speak up, you'll have the police called on you and you'll be the target of an "active and open" Siskiyou County Sheriff's investigation, like we were (I'll tell you that story later..its almost unbelievable...but remember that Kerry Ingrham-Criss is married to Siskiyou County Supervisor Brandon Criss...who oversees the Sheriff's Dept.  If you rattle a hornets nest, be ready for what happens next).

How did this all happen?

After moving to the Mt. Shasta area, we enlisted the services of JEDI, also known as the Jefferson Economic Development Institute.

They paired us with a consultant named Stephanie Hoffman, who told us about a business loan program offered by Great Northern Services of Weed, CA.  The loan program helps people obtain capital for the expansion or purchase of local businesses.

We found a local business for sale called Geppetto's Toy Shop, which used to be located next to Ray's Food Place in Mt. Shasta.  Here is our old logo:

The store was being sold by Kerry Ingraham-Criss (who is married to Siskiyou County Supervisor Brandon Criss).

Kerry is the daughter of Ken & Laura Ingraham, who own Noah’s Ark Feed Barn on Lassen Ln in Mt. Shasta, CA.

Kerry Criss, wife of
Siskiyou County Supervisor Brandon Criss, is a
Thief and a Two-Bit Whore who ripped me
off out of my life savings.

During our due diligence, Kerry provided financial statements that showed the toy store earning about $35,000 in profit per year AFTER ALL EXPENSES WERE PAID.

We used those financial statements to obtain a $70,000 business loan through their Community Development Block Grant Program (CDBG).   We put our house up as collateral for the loan.

It is extremely expensive to get Audited Financial Statements.  Typically, getting a CPA firm to do a complete audit of a store's books would cost tens of thousands of dollars, and could take up to six months.  For a small business, it is NOT practical to have the financial statements audited.  YOU MUST TAKE THE WORD OF THE SELLER.

The transaction was being sold through a local real estate firm (Century 21 in Mt. Shasta, CA), and the purchase document was done by a local lawyer.

Unbeknownst to me, Kerry was in desperate financial shape:  Kerry hid the fact that she was over $100,000 in debt from operating the toy store. 

To take the easy way out, she decided to cheat another human being out of their life savings.

That person was me.

After owning the Toy Store for a several months, I came to the horrifying discovery that there were no profits.    

I started to dig through the store's computer files and started finding financial irregularities left and right.

I discovered the first of many frauds:  Kerry Ingraham-Criss had defrauded us of $2,500 worth of gift cards.

Under the terms of the Toy Store purchase, we were buying the ASSETS of the store, and Kerry Ingraham-Criss was keeping the liabilities. However, Kerry hid from us that there were $2,500 worth of outstanding Gift Cards that she had collected the cash from those cards, but we would give merchandise (for which we weren't paid).

I caught Kerry Ingraham-Criss red-handed.   Even when I confronted her with evidence of her fraud, she refused to confess what she had done.

After operating the store for a couple months, we were forced to cash in our 401(k) retirement plans so we could keep the store open for two more years.  This was a huge mistake: we should have allowed the store to fail.  By keeping it open, we gave the false impression to the community that the store was fine when we bought it.

We worked at the store for the next two years for no pay.

When our retirement savings were exhausted two years later, we were finally forced to close the store.

We left town in a moving van, having been swindled out of our life earnings.

Today, seven years later, we are still suffering horribly.  We suffer every day because the debt from the toy store cannot be discharged through bankruptcy.  We earn too little to keep up with fees, fines, and interest.

Our lives are destroyed.  

To make matters worse, we have learned that the sellers started badmouthing us to others in the community soon after we bought the store, and they have badmouthed us to people in town ever since.  Our quest for justice has been an uphill climb.

The greatest mistake of my life was investing in Siskiyou County.

The purpose of this Blog is NOT to assign blame for the failure of the toy store...I have absolutely no interest in getting into a debate...

The purpose of this blog is to publicize the FACTS, which is what we are experiencing, and what we have experienced, which are indisputable.

We were taken advantage of

We thought they were our friends

Learn more about the people who ripped us off:

Learn about Kerry Ingraham-Criss, the Thief and the Two-Bit Whore who sold us the store:
http://kerrycrissmacdoelca.blogspot.com/

Learn about the Siskiyou Scum who did this to us. Kerry's parents own Noah's Ark Feed Barn:
http://noahsarkfeedbarn.wordpress.com

Here are the links to other articles about Kerry Criss, to boost their presence in Search Engine Results:
AllThingsShasta Magazine
https://pdxpcparts.wordpress.com/
Brandon Criss Fan Page. Kerry Criss is married to Siskiyou County Supervisor Brandon Criss.
Kelly Dickinson of Mt Shasta Fan Page Kelly is the sister of Kerry Ingraham, and has played a cover-up role in the fraud. Kelly is also overweight.
Kerry Criss of Macdoel, CA Fan Page Kerry Criss of MacDoel Fan Page
Kerry Ingraham-Criss Blogspot http://kerryingrahamcriss.blogspot.com/
Ken Ingraham of Mt. Shasta Blogger Ken is the father of Kerry Ingraham.
Laura Ingraham of Mt Shasta, CA Fan Page
Jess Perriseau Mt. Shasta Fan Page Butte Valley High School of Dorris, CA. Kerry teaches English at Butte Valley High School.
James Wells of Mt. Shasta Fan Page James is a criminal and alcoholic who started leaving obscene messages saying the Holocaust did not happen. I have no idea who he is, but now he has his own blog, too.
Noah's Ark Feed Barn Tumblr
Noah's Ark Feed Barn on Twitter
Laura Ingraham Facebook Page
Kerry Criss' Facebook Page
Butte Valley High School Facebook Page
Brandon Criss Facebook Page
Noah's Ark Feed Barn Original Facebook Page
Noah's Ark Feed Barn Second Facebook Page