I am a 75-year-old single woman living on Social Security and a small income from freelance work. In the fall of 2016, I was persuaded by Nick Fortune of FortuneDNA, Inc., to invest my savings in several digital marketing loan agreements offered by JP Maroney, CEO of Harbor City Capital Management, Harbor City Ventures LLC dba Harbor City DMA II LLC, Harbor City Digital Ventures LLC, and other organizations.
Swackhamer, Hadzipanajotis, and McClean are CFOs or Operations Manager of Maroney’s companies. Fortune claimed verbally that if Donald Trump won the election, that stocks and bonds, in which I was then invested, would plummet. Fortune then claimed verbally, and Maroney claimed both verbally and in writing that Maroney’s investments guaranteed high-return interest rates, and that they were completely safe, “can’t fail” investments.
I made multiple investments with Maroney in his “digital arbitrage” investments. Within just a few months, the interest payments stopped coming in, and the agreements went into default. Maroney promised in writing week after week, month after month, for a year and a half, to catch up on the interest payments and bring the loans current. At the same time, he claimed his other clients were all making huge returns on their investments.
When I sued him, he did not even bother to respond to the Complaint. I was awarded a default judgment, and still he has ignored the lawsuit. I recently learned that the company bank account has $239.000. So much for the multi-million dollar promises he made to his former investors, and continues to make to new investors. Upon further investigation, I learned that Nick Fortune is in fact Nick Malis, who was indicted in Las Vegas along with his father for mortgage fraud. Fortune continued to shill for Maroney at seminars even after he knew I was not receiving payments.
Maroney owes me hundreds of thousands of dollars, including my original principal and two plus years of interest. In early 2018, he started another digital arbitrage company/investment under the name of Harbor City Digital Ventures, LLC. The promotion material describes a venture virtually identical to the ones in which I invested. It is my belief that he may have used the money he owed to me to fund Digital Ventures, which is still being promoted online and at investment seminars around the United States. If so, I believe there are laws against comingling and conversion of client funds.
Alternatively, he may have been using the money he owed me to pay off his other investors, a classic sign of a Ponzi scheme. In any case, I am continuing to pursue him legally. My purpose here is to warn potential investors against doing business with JP Maroney, and to view anything Nick Fortune says with heavy skepticism.
I have been contacted by a lady named Betsy at HBC and she talked the company up, of course. Said they have been operating for 7 years and that it was a, "can't lose" proposition. After searching for the company on the Internet, I happened upon your evaluation. Thank you so much for tipping me off as to the rep this company has!
JP Maroney offered me his Authority Institute 12-month "Authority 500 Mastermind & Media Mavens" program for $25K. It was 12 high-value article placements (roughly 1 per month) in which I was to be included or quoted in publications such as Forbes and Entrepreneur. I was also to get 12 months of mastermind and group coaching, plus access to a growing vault of tools, training, materials. The idea of the program was to build up my Google rankings by having these articles and my name appear in Google search results.
JP Maroney originally told me the program was $20K, but then came back and said it was $25K. That should have been my first clue that this racket was some type of rip-off or sham. Payment terms were $20K initially, then $5K 30-40 days later. I paid the $25K total.
Once I paid, I heard nothing for several days. This was yet another early sign of a crooked deal or con game. I contacted JP to tell him no one from his program reached out to me. He said someone would be in touch. Not a good feeling – I even told him this feels like there’s such a hurry for me to pay, yet the time for the service to actually start is slow, like cold molasses. (What I really felt, but didn’t say, is that he wanted to make this deal such a fast one when it came to me paying him, then basically take his time on the hustle with me when it came to actually delivering the service). He assured me someone would be in touch. After several more days, someone was, and we began the program.
The 1st article was published on 7/30. It was a blog article with JP Maroney’s byline on HuffingtonPost.com. I wasn’t overly impressed. I didn’t care for JP Maroney’s byline; I thought these articles would be written by staff writers at the various publications. More importantly, the article didn’t link back to any regular page on my web site. It linked back to some random page that wasn’t even a public page that people could navigate to. For the money I paid, I would think JP Maroney or someone on his team would make sure the article linked to my home page or my “about me” page. Five months later, when I Google my name and “Huffington Post” the article does not come up in the search results.
I received mastermind coaching nearly every week, until the day when the very good, highly-effective, quite professional coach essentially fired me. He said it in an extremely nice way, but the bottom line was he wasn’t being paid; therefore, he could no longer devote the time to coaching me. He asked me if I had heard anything from JP – I had not. He said he hadn’t either, for at least several weeks. He shared with me that JP hadn’t paid him for his coaching of me, and that he (the coach) had personally paid for my Huffington Post article to be placed. There was a 2nd article in the works, and the coach had paid for that as well. That was an arrangement that he said simply couldn’t continue. I completely and totally understood. I remain in good relationship with the coach today.
At the same time the coach was firing me, JP emailed me to ask if he and I can talk. We schedule that conversation. He laid out a whole plan for articles coming in Feb, Mar, April and beyond. This conversation was in November. I felt he was giving me a snow job, and I wasn’t interested in falling (yet again) for his sucker game and whatever deception came along with it. I said thank you, but at this point it doesn’t seem to be working out. It’s taking a long time. The schedule you’re presenting will take even longer, and I’d prefer a refund.
His email to me later that same day and said, “Confirming that I'll clarify from {the coach} exactly how many articles are published, how many in the process to be published. We'll be issuing a refund for the balance.” That actually struck me as a little too easy. It sounded like more of a con game, and I suspected he would somehow move money in a bit of a shell game from something else (probably shady) that he had going on from someone else he had probably cheated.
I calculated the numbers. I was to pay for 2 articles out of the 12 promised, and be refunded for the rest. I wrote that in an email to JP. I emailed JP to request a refund of $20,833 by 12/15/16, with my bank wire instructions. JP’s email response was “sounds like a plan.” On 12/14/16 I emailed a reminder to him. On the appointed date at nearly 7 pm I texted JP to say there was no wire, and please let me know if there was an issue. The next day he texted back, “Will be sending. I’ll email details.” Then, nothing since.
JP Maroney is sitting on $25K of my money, for which I have seen 1 article, and I was promised (by the coach, not by JP) that the 2nd article is coming. That’s a crooked deal with little to show for what I have paid, and I don’t appreciate being in the position of chasing down someone to get money back for a service that absolutely wasn’t provided. That’s a rip-off and a scam, and JP Maroney’s business practices are definitely characterized as cheating and unscrupulous.
Best choice my wife and I made after getting taken my the market
I was very skeptical at first. But after doing my diligence and speaking with other people that have been getting paid consistently, my wife and I decided to take our last bit of funding that we had available and give this a try. And over the seven months that we have been invested there has never been one payment missed. Every month we receive a check of $1,500, and finally have peace of mind. This is the only investment that ever gave me that.
I saw this and normally wouldn't want to get involved but signed up for a starter bond at 50,000 in Feb 2019. So far I have received a check $750 every month since March 2019. I didn't (and still don't) really understand what they do to make me money but all I know is I'm getting paid. So, hope that helps. I'm 74 years old and on a fixed income and was afraid to wire my money to a company I found through an advertisement but I am glad I did, atleast so far. If that changes I will amend my post.
Harbor City Capital Management Reviews
I am a 75-year-old single woman living on Social Security and a small income from freelance work. In the fall of 2016, I was persuaded by Nick Fortune of FortuneDNA, Inc., to invest my savings in several digital marketing loan agreements offered by JP Maroney, CEO of Harbor City Capital Management, Harbor City Ventures LLC dba Harbor City DMA II LLC, Harbor City Digital Ventures LLC, and other organizations.
Swackhamer, Hadzipanajotis, and McClean are CFOs or Operations Manager of Maroney’s companies. Fortune claimed verbally that if Donald Trump won the election, that stocks and bonds, in which I was then invested, would plummet. Fortune then claimed verbally, and Maroney claimed both verbally and in writing that Maroney’s investments guaranteed high-return interest rates, and that they were completely safe, “can’t fail” investments.
I made multiple investments with Maroney in his “digital arbitrage” investments. Within just a few months, the interest payments stopped coming in, and the agreements went into default. Maroney promised in writing week after week, month after month, for a year and a half, to catch up on the interest payments and bring the loans current. At the same time, he claimed his other clients were all making huge returns on their investments.
When I sued him, he did not even bother to respond to the Complaint. I was awarded a default judgment, and still he has ignored the lawsuit. I recently learned that the company bank account has $239.000. So much for the multi-million dollar promises he made to his former investors, and continues to make to new investors. Upon further investigation, I learned that Nick Fortune is in fact Nick Malis, who was indicted in Las Vegas along with his father for mortgage fraud. Fortune continued to shill for Maroney at seminars even after he knew I was not receiving payments.
Maroney owes me hundreds of thousands of dollars, including my original principal and two plus years of interest. In early 2018, he started another digital arbitrage company/investment under the name of Harbor City Digital Ventures, LLC. The promotion material describes a venture virtually identical to the ones in which I invested. It is my belief that he may have used the money he owed to me to fund Digital Ventures, which is still being promoted online and at investment seminars around the United States. If so, I believe there are laws against comingling and conversion of client funds.
Alternatively, he may have been using the money he owed me to pay off his other investors, a classic sign of a Ponzi scheme. In any case, I am continuing to pursue him legally. My purpose here is to warn potential investors against doing business with JP Maroney, and to view anything Nick Fortune says with heavy skepticism.
Thank you so much!
I have been contacted by a lady named Betsy at HBC and she talked the company up, of course. Said they have been operating for 7 years and that it was a, "can't lose" proposition. After searching for the company on the Internet, I happened upon your evaluation. Thank you so much for tipping me off as to the rep this company has!
John
JP Maroney offered me his Authority Institute 12-month "Authority 500 Mastermind & Media Mavens" program for $25K. It was 12 high-value article placements (roughly 1 per month) in which I was to be included or quoted in publications such as Forbes and Entrepreneur. I was also to get 12 months of mastermind and group coaching, plus access to a growing vault of tools, training, materials. The idea of the program was to build up my Google rankings by having these articles and my name appear in Google search results.
JP Maroney originally told me the program was $20K, but then came back and said it was $25K. That should have been my first clue that this racket was some type of rip-off or sham. Payment terms were $20K initially, then $5K 30-40 days later. I paid the $25K total.
Once I paid, I heard nothing for several days. This was yet another early sign of a crooked deal or con game. I contacted JP to tell him no one from his program reached out to me. He said someone would be in touch. Not a good feeling – I even told him this feels like there’s such a hurry for me to pay, yet the time for the service to actually start is slow, like cold molasses. (What I really felt, but didn’t say, is that he wanted to make this deal such a fast one when it came to me paying him, then basically take his time on the hustle with me when it came to actually delivering the service). He assured me someone would be in touch. After several more days, someone was, and we began the program.
The 1st article was published on 7/30. It was a blog article with JP Maroney’s byline on HuffingtonPost.com. I wasn’t overly impressed. I didn’t care for JP Maroney’s byline; I thought these articles would be written by staff writers at the various publications. More importantly, the article didn’t link back to any regular page on my web site. It linked back to some random page that wasn’t even a public page that people could navigate to. For the money I paid, I would think JP Maroney or someone on his team would make sure the article linked to my home page or my “about me” page. Five months later, when I Google my name and “Huffington Post” the article does not come up in the search results.
I received mastermind coaching nearly every week, until the day when the very good, highly-effective, quite professional coach essentially fired me. He said it in an extremely nice way, but the bottom line was he wasn’t being paid; therefore, he could no longer devote the time to coaching me. He asked me if I had heard anything from JP – I had not. He said he hadn’t either, for at least several weeks. He shared with me that JP hadn’t paid him for his coaching of me, and that he (the coach) had personally paid for my Huffington Post article to be placed. There was a 2nd article in the works, and the coach had paid for that as well. That was an arrangement that he said simply couldn’t continue. I completely and totally understood. I remain in good relationship with the coach today.
At the same time the coach was firing me, JP emailed me to ask if he and I can talk. We schedule that conversation. He laid out a whole plan for articles coming in Feb, Mar, April and beyond. This conversation was in November. I felt he was giving me a snow job, and I wasn’t interested in falling (yet again) for his sucker game and whatever deception came along with it. I said thank you, but at this point it doesn’t seem to be working out. It’s taking a long time. The schedule you’re presenting will take even longer, and I’d prefer a refund.
His email to me later that same day and said, “Confirming that I'll clarify from {the coach} exactly how many articles are published, how many in the process to be published. We'll be issuing a refund for the balance.” That actually struck me as a little too easy. It sounded like more of a con game, and I suspected he would somehow move money in a bit of a shell game from something else (probably shady) that he had going on from someone else he had probably cheated.
I calculated the numbers. I was to pay for 2 articles out of the 12 promised, and be refunded for the rest. I wrote that in an email to JP. I emailed JP to request a refund of $20,833 by 12/15/16, with my bank wire instructions. JP’s email response was “sounds like a plan.” On 12/14/16 I emailed a reminder to him. On the appointed date at nearly 7 pm I texted JP to say there was no wire, and please let me know if there was an issue. The next day he texted back, “Will be sending. I’ll email details.” Then, nothing since.
JP Maroney is sitting on $25K of my money, for which I have seen 1 article, and I was promised (by the coach, not by JP) that the 2nd article is coming. That’s a crooked deal with little to show for what I have paid, and I don’t appreciate being in the position of chasing down someone to get money back for a service that absolutely wasn’t provided. That’s a rip-off and a scam, and JP Maroney’s business practices are definitely characterized as cheating and unscrupulous.
Best choice my wife and I made after getting taken my the market
I was very skeptical at first. But after doing my diligence and speaking with other people that have been getting paid consistently, my wife and I decided to take our last bit of funding that we had available and give this a try. And over the seven months that we have been invested there has never been one payment missed. Every month we receive a check of $1,500, and finally have peace of mind. This is the only investment that ever gave me that.
Been getting paid for 5 months and counting...
I saw this and normally wouldn't want to get involved but signed up for a starter bond at 50,000 in Feb 2019. So far I have received a check $750 every month since March 2019. I didn't (and still don't) really understand what they do to make me money but all I know is I'm getting paid. So, hope that helps. I'm 74 years old and on a fixed income and was afraid to wire my money to a company I found through an advertisement but I am glad I did, atleast so far. If that changes I will amend my post.