CA CA - John Beck, 73, Alameda, 9 Feb 2016 #1

[cujenn81]

The FB admin responded back and asked if I could take a photo of the for sale sign for them so that they can contact the listing agent. I told them of course, so I'm gonna do that this afternoon after work.

 

[krig101]

The FB admin responded back and asked if I could take a photo of the for sale sign for them so that they can contact the listing agent. I told them of course, so I'm gonna do that this afternoon after work.

Wow. That was a fast response!

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

[sleeperlabs]

This could be bad news for the Beck family: http://alamedasun.com/news/missing-alamedan-faces-bankruptcy-dismissal :notgood:


And nice work, cujenn81 reporting the sighting! Hopefully, somehow it is him and the search will be over! lease:

 

[Tssiemer]

Ok. Let the creditors find him. They may do a better job, ya know.

They always find me...:hills::hills:

 

[sleeperlabs]

BBM

Thanks for posting about this. Here's a link I hope will work. I don't see it posted on the blog for those without FB.
https://www.facebook.com/findjohnbeck/videos/vb.582750541891000/606334656199255/?type=2&theater

To answer your question...I don't recall that I've ever heard of a reward creating a break in a case of any kind, but that could just be my ignorance. I've heard theories that sometimes people wait to give information until the reward gets higher, but I'm not sure that's true. If it makes the family feel like they are doing something and it publicizes the fact that John is still missing, I can understand why they would do it. It doesn't sound as if the reward would be paid unless John returns home, so if they find out where he is but he wants to stay away, at least they'd know he's alive. So far, I can't find any story about this reward in MSM. That needs to happen or no one will know about it.
JMO

Sorry for not responding sooner, Lilibet (life has been getting in the way), but thank you for sharing your thoughts about rewards. I was wondering if they might lead to something, or if it results in nothing or worse, false reports... it seems very tricky. You are also spot on about getting the announcement onto MSM. I was hoping to see something in the news about it since the posting but there's been nothing so far.

 

[sleeperlabs]

Ok. Let the creditors find him. They may do a better job, ya know.

They always find me...:hills::hills:

Unfortunately, the creditors won't go after John Beck; they'll go after his assets. Losing Chapter 7 status would put the family's estate (including their home, future income, retirement disbursements, etc.) fully up for grabs again and it is very likely that they will lose everything.

 

[Deleted member 165632]

Unfortunately, the creditors won't go after John Beck; they'll go after his assets. Losing Chapter 7 status would put the family's estate (including their home, future income, retirement disbursements, etc.) fully up for grabs again and it is very likely that they will lose everything.

Thank you sleeperlabs for clarifying. This is just so sad.

 

[Lilibet]

The latest article explains the purpose of the meeting on 2/9 and subsequently rescheduled meeting 3/8. These were very important meetings, not routine, and could have been very awkward for him. For whatever reason, he chose not to attend on 2/9 and answer questions under oath. It's very sad the way this has played out.

John N. Beck II now faces dismissal of his Chapter 7 bankruptcy case. As it does with all people who file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, the court required Beck to attend a mandatory hearing called the meeting of creditors.
The meeting would have allowed the trustee and Beck’s creditors to ask him questions under oath about his bankruptcy papers and financial affairs.
When Beck failed to appear at a Feb. 9 meeting of creditors, Judge William Laverty continued the hearing, in effect rescheduling it. Beck has not been seen since Feb. 9 (“Alameda Man Disappears, Feb. 19).

http://alamedasun.com/news/missing-alamedan-faces-bankruptcy-dismissal

Previous articles from the Alameda Sun:

http://alamedasun.com/news/john-beck-still-missing-his-case-unfolds

http://alamedasun.com/news/local-fails-appear-court-—-again

 

[Timekeeper65]

Unfortunately, the creditors won't go after John Beck; they'll go after his assets. Losing Chapter 7 status would put the family's estate (including their home, future income, retirement disbursements, etc.) fully up for grabs again and it is very likely that they will lose everything.

So disheartening. All of the ups and downs (mostly downs) with JB missing...now this.

 

[MsMoon]

OT ~ maybe one of you with more posting experience could put this where it goes, please?

SAN FRANCISCO (KTVU, BCN) - An investigation is under way into human skeletal remains discovered in San Francisco's Lower Pacific Heights. The remains were found Friday under a dry cleaning business in the 1900 block of Fillmore Street.

http://www.ktvu.com/news/ktvu-local-news/116839379-story

 

[katydid23]

The latest article explains the purpose of the meeting on 2/9 and subsequently rescheduled meeting 3/8. These were very important meetings, not routine, and could have been very awkward for him. For whatever reason, he chose not to attend on 2/9 and answer questions under oath. It's very sad the way this has played out.

John N. Beck II now faces dismissal of his Chapter 7 bankruptcy case. As it does with all people who file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, the court required Beck to attend a mandatory hearing called the meeting of creditors.
The meeting would have allowed the trustee and Beck’s creditors to ask him questions under oath about his bankruptcy papers and financial affairs.
When Beck failed to appear at a Feb. 9 meeting of creditors, Judge William Laverty continued the hearing, in effect rescheduling it. Beck has not been seen since Feb. 9 (“Alameda Man Disappears, Feb. 19).

http://alamedasun.com/news/missing-alamedan-faces-bankruptcy-dismissal

Previous articles from the Alameda Sun:

http://alamedasun.com/news/john-beck-still-missing-his-case-unfolds

http://alamedasun.com/news/local-fails-appear-court-—-again

I wonder why he skipped those important meetings ? He certainly understood that if the bankruptcy failed, his family would lose their home etc.

 

[Lilibet]

I wonder why he skipped those important meetings ? He certainly understood that if the bankruptcy failed, his family would lose their home etc.

I was trying to be sort of subtle by just bolding the relevant part, and letting everyone draw their own conclusions, but I'll be blunt and risk getting clobbered with tomatoes. And I'll preface this by saying that we kept asking what the meeting was about and were told that it was just part of an ongoing legal issue and was nothing out of the ordinary. Clearly our source was mistaken. We knew that meeting was pivotal and now we know why.

If someone is going to be required to answer questions about their finances under oath and they skip the meeting...that says to me that they had reason not to want to answer those questions. Choosing to leave your wife in a financial mess in order to avoid answering those questions under oath indicates to me that there is money stashed somewhere that is worth more than a couple of houses in Alameda and other assets. John could either tell the truth and lose that money, or perjure himself, get caught and possibly go to prison, or leave and keep the money. There was no reason to leave if there was no undisclosed money IMO.

I hate, hate, hate thinking this or saying it. If someone has another more benign theory, I'm definitely open to it and I'll apologize profusely if I'm wrong. I feel terrible for John's wife and children and grandkids.

 

[sleeperlabs]

Great discussion! My two cents: first, remember that John Beck disappeared on the morning of 2/9 just before the meeting and missed the rescheduled 3/8 meeting because he hasn't been seen since.

One critical clarification about the situation - though the meetings were indeed important they were also quite routine in nature. It was a 341(a) hearing (Meeting of Creditors) with the bankruptcy trustee to review his chapter 7 documentation, exemptions and pre- and post-bankrupcy assets & debt obligations. 341s are not court cases and are not conducted in a courtroom with a judge present; but rather, more of a validation & clarification meeting with the court-appointed trustee. These meetings rarely run longer than 30 minutes, depending on whether the creditors attend (they usually don't; don't know if the FTC would in this instance) even in proceedings following a complex civil case such as this. Most are shorter than 15 minutes in duration.

Anyway, at the end of the hearing, the trustee will either request additional documentation to be provided in a follow-up meeting, or allow the discharge of debt obligations. The creditors will then have a period of time, typically 60 days, to file an objection to the discharge or let it pass. So even though this was yet another in a long series of meetings related to the original case, as the family described it, the proceedings were nearing completion and they were probably seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

The emotionally tough work in the process actually comes prior to the 341 hearing: working with a bankruptcy lawyer and liquidating receiver on the petition and supporting documentation/finances. It is arduous work and is the moment when one sees which assets they will be liquidated from their estate. That's when the harsh reality of the situation would have hit the family. The Chapter 7 conversion was granted in December 2015, so sometime between then and a little bit before the 341 hearing on February 9, 2016, when the documentation was submitted, would have been the hardest. But the good news following the December ruling is that certain financial accounts were very likely unfrozen (but defintely still monitored) at that time, so the family would finally have had access to unrelated income, RMDs for retirement accounts and things of that nature.

That's what is so puzzling to me about all this. The hard work in the Chapter 7 process was done, they were almost finished with it, things were getting a little bit better relative to how bad they could have been, and then John Beck disappears. And regardless of whether he ran off to start anew or chose to end it all, he left his family in a very, very tough situation now that the Chapter 7 is at risk of dismissal. It's just so bizarre, but then again I won't underestimate the things stress and depression can drive someone to do.

EDIT:
Here's some additional information about the 341(a) hearing process: http://www.alllaw.com/articles/nolo/bankruptcy/what-expect-meeting-creditors-341-hearing.html

 

[Lilibet]

OT ~ maybe one of you with more posting experience could put this where it goes, please?

SAN FRANCISCO (KTVU, BCN) - An investigation is under way into human skeletal remains discovered in San Francisco's Lower Pacific Heights. The remains were found Friday under a dry cleaning business in the 1900 block of Fillmore Street.

http://www.ktvu.com/news/ktvu-local-news/116839379-story

OT--This is a really interesting mystery. Commenters on the SFGate article guess that the remains could be part of an Indian burial ground, from the 1906 earthquake or foul play as suspected, among other ideas. I've been trying to figure out where this should go and the only possibility I see is the unidentified missing forum. The trouble with that is, all the listings mention the gender of the remains and that hasn't been determined yet. So far, no one else has started a thread for this story that I can find. Unless someone has a better idea, I think I might wait a bit to see how this develops and then pm someone who posts in the unidentified missing threads and ask their advice. Thoughts?

Here are some more stories about it.

Investigators are poring over missing-person reports and cold-case homicides to see if any fit the circumstances, police said. The county coroner’s office will try to analyze any DNA obtained from the remains.
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Human-remains-unearthed-beneath-SF-dry-cleaning-7227476.php

There was no word from authorities yet on how long the bones had been there.
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2016/04/04/human-remains-found-under-fillmore-street-business-deemed-suspicious/

We are trying to find out who this person is, whether it's a male or female, if it's one person or multiple persons," San Francisco Police Officer Carlos Manfredi said. ....City records indicate the building has been been in the area for more than 100 years.
http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/loca...siness-in-San-Francisco-Police-374562611.html

 

[0101ABA]

I am a (relative) newbie, but have started multiple threads in the Unidentified section of the forum and would be more than happy to start a thread for these remains. But, I don't want to step on any toes I'm curious to find out more information because as of right now, the possibilities are limitless with what few specifics they've released.

 

[sleeperlabs]

Sorry, another thought... I'll also add that I still believe it would be extremely difficult for John Beck to have stashed money away so he could start a new life. This is based on the legal case timeline:

2006 - 2009
FTC investigates John Beck's real estate informercial business as part of Operation Short Change

July 2009
FTC files complaint for injunctive relief against Mentoring of America (Gravink & Hewitt's business); Alexander, Beck and Paul (the informercial personalities) named as inventors of get rich telemarketing schemes

November 2009
Preliminary injunction issued by the Central District of CA Federal Court for freeze on Beck's corporate and individual assets

August 2012
Permanent injunction issued; $113M judgement against Beck

September 2012
Beck files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection while the FTC case is in appellate court

November 2012
Chapter 11 trustee requests bankruptcy court to either convert John Beck's bankruptcy case to Chapter 7 or dismiss it outright, as Beck did not provide a plan for debt restructure

September 2012 - 2015
FTC v. Beck case is challenged, goes to U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (this is the courtroom webcast which was mentioned early on in this thread)

November 2015
John Beck files for Chapter 7 conversion based on Ninth Circuit ruling

December 2015
Bankruptcy court grants John Beck Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection. 341(a) hearing is set for 2/9


So while he did move some money around in a manipulative way prior to his bankruptcy in 2012 (selling a house to his daughter, paid off some of his mortgage, dumped money into a retirement account), remember that he filed Chapter 11 as a strategy to protect his assets while the FTC case was being appealed. In order to hide his money, John Beck would had to have done it much much earlier, between 2005 and 2006, way before he was even aware that his finances were being monitored by the authorities. According to the court case, the infomercials ran from 2004-2007, so that's not a big window of time.

The other thing to keep in mind is that Beck testified that his system was flawed and that it would be very difficult to make any money with it... and the FTC briefing shows that revenue from the infomercials, call center/DR marketing, consulting, etc. flowed largely to Gravink and Hewitt's companies (Family Products and Mentoring of America). So it's difficult to imagine that John Beck could have a small fortune or any reasonable amount of money for that matter hidden somewhere.

Not sure how to put this, but I'm also a bit dubious that he is smart enough to pull off something like that. This is based on some facts we know, like he used a 'dumb' flip phone (not a smartphone) and failed to cover all of his tracks on his computer, leading the family to discover his search history. He was also clumsy enough to get caught by the FTC and called out for years by customers complaining online.

I'm not trying to make excuses for John Beck or rule anything out, nor am I trying to be argumentative - I just wanted to explain why I don't think he seems sophisticated or clever enough to craft an elaborate getaway. It doesn't quite add up.

 

[Lilibet]

Thanks for this information. I found the same link you added when I googled. I see that it is considered a fairly routine meeting. But even though it's not conducted in a courtroom, the debtor is under oath. Here are a couple of scripts or outlines showing what may be asked:
https://www.justice.gov/sites/defau...12/11/29/Section_341(a)_Meeting_Questions.pdf
http://www.chi13.com/web/341script.html

Under normal circumstances, it seems that this meeting would be the light at the end of the tunnel. So it is bizarre that he would choose that moment to disappear, knowing what the result would be. That's why the fact that he would be under oath jumps out at me as a reason to disappear. JMO

Great discussion! My two cents: first, remember that John Beck disappeared on the morning of 2/9 just before the meeting and missed the rescheduled 3/8 meeting because he hasn't been seen since.

One critical clarification about the situation - though the meetings were indeed important they were also quite routine in nature. It was a 341(a) hearing (Meeting of Creditors) with the bankruptcy trustee to review his chapter 7 documentation, exemptions and pre- and post-bankrupcy assets & debt obligations. 341s are not court cases and are not conducted in a courtroom with a judge present; but rather, more of a validation & clarification meeting with the court-appointed trustee. These meetings rarely run longer than 30 minutes, depending on whether the creditors attend (they usually don't; don't know if the FTC would in this instance) even in proceedings following a complex civil case such as this. Most are shorter than 15 minutes in duration.

Anyway, at the end of the hearing, the trustee will either request additional documentation to be provided in a follow-up meeting, or allow the discharge of debt obligations. The creditors will then have a period of time, typically 60 days, to file an objection to the discharge or let it pass. So even though this was yet another in a long series of meetings related to the original case, as the family described it, the proceedings were nearing completion and they were probably seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

The emotionally tough work in the process actually comes prior to the 341 hearing: working with a bankruptcy lawyer and liquidating receiver on the petition and supporting documentation/finances. It is arduous work and is the moment when one sees which assets they will be liquidated from their estate. That's when the harsh reality of the situation would have hit the family. The Chapter 7 conversion was granted in December 2015, so sometime between then and a little bit before the 341 hearing on February 9, 2016, when the documentation was submitted, would have been the hardest. But the good news following the December ruling is that certain financial accounts were very likely unfrozen (but defintely still monitored) at that time, so the family would finally have had access to unrelated income, RMDs for retirement accounts and things of that nature.

That's what is so puzzling to me about all this. The hard work in the Chapter 7 process was done, they were almost finished with it, things were getting a little bit better relative to how bad they could have been, and then John Beck disappears. And regardless of whether he ran off to start anew or chose to end it all, he left his family in a very, very tough situation now that the Chapter 7 is at risk of dismissal. It's just so bizarre, but then again I won't underestimate the things stress and depression can drive someone to do.

EDIT:
Here's some additional information about the 341(a) hearing process: http://www.alllaw.com/articles/nolo/bankruptcy/what-expect-meeting-creditors-341-hearing.html

 

[Lilibet]

I am a (relative) newbie, but have started multiple threads in the Unidentified section of the forum and would be more than happy to start a thread for these remains. But, I don't want to step on any toes I'm curious to find out more information because as of right now, the possibilities are limitless with what few specifics they've released.

You certainly wouldn't be stepping on my toes! I'd be happy if you would take this on. Thank you! Please post a link here when you start a thread. It would be great to follow this.

 

[sleeperlabs]

Yep! You're right - the debtor is under oath during the 341(a) hearing, I should have mentioned that. But since the hearing is by nature more validation and less discovery, as shown in those Chapter 7 script links, everything discussed under oath would have been to confirm the bankruptcy schedules which would had to have been signed and filed with the bankruptcy court around early January, with the help of his attorney.

Mr. Beck also would had to have taken credit counseling and financial management courses prior to the 341, as mandated by CA law, which only adds to the mystery of why he disappeared. Why go through all the trouble and then vanish? It's too bad Joy or the family can't offer up more information. There must be some critical detail we're missing here.

 

[Starry Night]

Yep! You're right - the debtor is under oath during the 341(a) hearing, I should have mentioned that. But since the hearing is by nature more validation and less discovery, as shown in those Chapter 7 script links, everything discussed under oath would have been to confirm the bankruptcy schedules which would had to have been signed and filed with the bankruptcy court around early January, with the help of his attorney.

Mr. Beck also would had to have taken credit counseling and financial management courses prior to the 341, as mandated by CA law, which only adds to the mystery of why he disappeared. Why go through all the trouble and then vanish? It's too bad Joy or the family can't offer up more information. There must be some critical detail we're missing here.

It seems that maybe John skipped the 'would have had to do' parts and ran away.