Ouch! What a bunch of cheating, thieving, crooks.
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One case was in Tennessee…Google Neal v. Jansen
http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-6th-circuit/1332405.html
In a nutshell, the Neal family had a horse listed for sale for $500,000. Horse is supposedly “sold” for $312,000. The Neals subsequently found out that the horse had actually been sold for $480,000.
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Remember this Helstrand ripoff.
http://www.eurodressage.com/equestrian/2013/02/11/story-donna-uniques-missing-million
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I always found it shocking that people kept sending horses to Helgstrand and/or Jansen after all those lawsuits came out.
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And another Helgstrand curiosity:
He promoted Sezuan as sired by Blue Hors Romanov, but knew that breeding did not take. Then the dam, Don Romina, was bred successfully to to Blue Hors Zack, to produce Sezuan. Blue Hors Stud explained it as a clerical error, but as the article says,
[I]The Danish National Office for Horses always sends a receipt after the documents have been received at their office. This receipt was not properly checked in order to discover the error in time. Strangely Helgstrand promoted the 2,5 year old Sezuan as a Romanov offspring on his website, well aware that back in 2008 his mare didn’t catch on Romanov breeding and was rebred to Zack.
Sezuan’s licensing status still stands even though he is now sired by Zack.
The revelation of Sezuan’s new sire does pose a problem for Danish mare owners who have already inseminated their Zack mares with Sezuan as it might have caused unwanted line-breeding for them.[/I]
Things that make you go hmmmmmm…
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The defendant’s response…
http://dressage-news.com/2017/10/09/…t-plain-wrong/
Yes, by all means, continue to go to work with a smile on your face.
This horse wasn’t the first one you misrepresented in a sale.
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“Lionshare” indeed… 
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AT is looking for a jury trial, and so there is hope that it goes all the way to the courtroom.
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On what information is this based?
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Doesn’t the USEF have something in the rules about this type business? Like suspend worthy for a long time.
Paragraph 4. “The suit seeks a jury trial of nine counts including fraud, breach of contract, unjust enrichment and violations of Florida’s Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act. Alice is seeking $500,000 in damages for eight of the counts.”
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You can go online to the Palm Beach County online court records, do a search by name, and read the actual pleadings in cases such as this one with the Exhibits attached. Hers is not the only well known welly-world name you will find attached to dirty horse sales dealings if you care to look. Although when they settle out of court and it is “dismissed” and if the terms are confidential you do not get the whole scoop. But always would be good to look here before doing business in that area.
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Good info, thanks. Especially because court records are a more credible resource than some word-of-mouth accounts.
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No show record, no USDF change of ownership. Weird. Did this mare drop off planet? Could she be in Europe somewhere?
The article in the OP says:
[I]“Unbeknownst to plaintiff, Roffman actually sold Fabrege to Bethany Peslar and/or Everglades Dressage LLC (Peslar) for $900,000,” the suit alleged.
"Endel L. Ots (‘Ots’), a former partner of Roffman’s and former manager of Lionshare, is Peslar’s trainer.
"Ots, at defendant’s direction, misrepresented to Peslar that Peter was the seller of Fabrege.
"Ots, at defendant’s direction, instructed Peslar to wire transfer the purchase price of $900,000 for Fabrege to Peter’s bank account.[/I]
To me, this reads that Bethany Peslar was the actual buyer, and Ots is her trainer. So BP would now own the mare. ((But is there any valid contract?))
Article says that AT agreed to the $300K price, and CR directed her to send ownership papers:
Alice agreed to the price. When she did not receive a wire transfer of funds from Belgium, Caroline allegedly said she had confirmation the money had been transferred from Peter’s account but could have been held up because of terrorist alerts. So she paid the $300,000 to Alice…
Caroline asked for the ownership papers to be sent to an address in Wellington that turned out to be owned by her father.
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Information on the USEF website has Everglades Dressage LLC as the owner. The horse was entered in a Developing PSG class in 4/16 with BP, but there was no score listed. I think that means she scratched or withdrew.
If this is true, it’s totally skanky. This happened to me; I was the end buyer.
The agent is still running her schemes and people still buy from her. When I found out, I called the original seller and told them what I paid for the horse. I could have gotten my money back, but I refused to part with the horse. I figured if I couldn’t get my money back, perhaps they could go after her. They did not go after her, and furthermore, the horse they bought from her was lame, big surprise.
I have no idea who BP is, but if I were her, I’d be absolutely furious as well.
perhaps the horse did not perform like $1 million horse, and perhaps she contacted Alice.
btw, in my case, they went to the trouble of attempting to wipe my horses USEF history clean I reregistering him as a new horse.
Unfortunately for them, it’s a little too tempting to put super jumping videos of your horse on YouTube. Idiots.
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So CR goes to court saying Alice agreed to 300K price ( her decision). Peter bought horse and immediately sold to BP for 900K. These quick turnover sales aren’t uncommon in cars, houses…most anything that sells for under its value in the first place… Yes, it looks very suspicious, but coincidences do happen. The defense could fly in a court of law. I think the plaintift must prove that it was a setup to extort money and I bet it is hard to prove so most people settle out of court. (and the perpetrator continues business as usual). However, wouldn’t Peter be liable to pay taxes on the 600K profit? (Do Belgians pay taxes?) Someone here must claim the 600K profit, if not, wouldn’t that be a provable fraud against the government?
600K seems like a tremendous amount of unfair profit but maybe CR was planning on the lawsuit and giving up some of that profit in a settlement reducing her ill gotten gains to a couple hundred thousand and no further repercussions. Lol
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Here is the full article, which may clarify some questions:
http://dressage-news.com/2017/10/09/…in-horse-sale/
CAROLINE ROFFMAN, 2012 FEI “RISING STAR,” BEING SUED IN FLORIDA FOR ALLEGED FRAUD IN HORSE SALE
Caroline Roffman, File photo. © Ken Braddick/dressage-news.com
By KENNETH J. BRADDICK
WEST PALM BEACH, Florida, Oct. 9, 2017–Caroline Roffman, an American horse sales agent, trainer and competitor and the 2010 FEI “Rising Star,” is being sued for alleged fraud and “intentionally” misrepresenting the sale of a horse for $300,000 that the lawsuit claims was sold for $900,000 without informing the owner.
Alice Tarjan of Frenchtown, New Jersey, who has developed and competed numerous horses from youngsters to Grand Prix over the past decade, filed the suit in Palm Beach County Circuit Court here.
The suit names Caroline Roffman, 29 years old, and Lionshare Dressage, LLC both of Wellington, Florida as defendants in the alleged scheme over Fabrege MF, a Hanoverian mare that was six years old when sold in 2015. Alice competed Fabrege at the 2013 U.S. four-year-old championships.
The suit seeks a jury trial of nine counts including fraud, breach of contract, unjust enrichment and violations of Florida’s Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act. Alice is seeking $500,000 in damages for eight of the counts.
According to the suit, Alice Tarjan contacted Caroline Roffman in September, 2015 about handling the sale of Fabrege. Caroline had been the sales agent for Somer Hit and Fairytale, two other horses owned by Alice.
Caroline advised, the suit alleged, that the horse could be sold for between $250,000 to $400,000, depending on performance. The two made an agreement for a 10 per cent sales commission and Fabrege was shipped to Florida from New Jersey in October.
In early November, Caroline informed Alice that Peter Eeckman Horses of Belgium (Peter) had made an offer of $300,000 for Fabrege and would pay a $30,000 commission directly to the defendants, Caroline and Lionshare.
Alice Tarjan in the suit said she questioned the fairness of the price and thought Fabrege was worth about $500,000.
“Roffman advised plaintiff to sell Fabrege to Peter at that price,” the suit stated. “She also represented that Fabrege’s canter and tempis reduced the value and, as a result, $500,000 would be difficult if not impossible to attain.”
Alice agreed to the price. When she did not receive a wire transfer of funds from Belgium, Caroline allegedly said she had confirmation the money had been transferred from Peter’s account but could have been held up because of terrorist alerts. So she paid the $300,000 to Alice.
Caroline asked for the ownership papers to be sent to an address in Wellington that turned out to be owned by her father.
“Unbeknownst to plaintiff, Roffman actually sold Fabrege to Bethany Peslar and/or Everglades Dressage LLC (Peslar) for $900,000,” the suit alleged.
"Endel L. Ots (‘Ots’), a former partner of Roffman’s and former manager of Lionshare, is Peslar’s trainer.
"Ots, at defendant’s direction, misrepresented to Peslar that Peter was the seller of Fabrege.
"Ots, at defendant’s direction, instructed Peslar to wire transfer the purchase price of $900,000 for Fabrege to Peter’s bank account.
"Peter retained $10,000 from the funds transferred by Peslar as a fee for use of its bank account to funnel the Fabrege sale money and sent the remaining funds received from Peslar, $890,000, to Roffman.
"Peter never bought Fabrege or paid any money for Fabrege.
"Defendants knew Peter never owned Fabrege and used Peter as subterfuge for defendants to make an illegal profit from the sale of Fabrege.
“Roffman intentionally misrepresented to plaintiff (a) the sale price for Fabrege was $300,000 and (b) the identify of Fabrege’s buyer in order to illegally obtain $600,000.00 for herself and Lionshare.”
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But Peter did NOT purchase the horse, that is part of the fraud. Read the article above, particularly these points:
“Unbeknownst to plaintiff, Roffman actually sold Fabrege to Bethany Peslar and/or Everglades Dressage LLC (Peslar) for $900,000,” the suit alleged.
"Endel L. Ots (‘Ots’), a former partner of Roffman’s and former manager of Lionshare, is Peslar’s trainer.
"Ots, at defendant’s direction, misrepresented to Peslar that Peter was the seller of Fabrege.
"Ots, at defendant’s direction, instructed Peslar to wire transfer the purchase price of $900,000 for Fabrege to Peter’s bank account.
"Peter retained $10,000 from the funds transferred by Peslar as a fee for use of its bank account to funnel the Fabrege sale money and sent the remaining funds received from Peslar, $890,000, to Roffman.
"Peter never bought Fabrege or paid any money for Fabrege.
"Defendants knew Peter never owned Fabrege and used Peter as subterfuge for defendants to make an illegal profit from the sale of Fabrege.
“Roffman intentionally misrepresented to plaintiff (a) the sale price for Fabrege was $300,000 and (b) the identify of Fabrege’s buyer in order to illegally obtain $600,000.00 for herself and Lionshare.”
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