Oh how the mighty will fall.
This suit reads as though there was separate litigation against the plaintiff? Does anyone have that suit? It reads like this was discovered after Parra sued her for something.
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The FEI needs to be sued by its shareholders for failure to comply to their own mission statement. The corruption runs deep. Without a course correction on their part they will lose the Olympics, possibly more.
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Thereâs rumor that this whole âhalf ownershipâ scheme was something that was done more than once.
Does the FEI or USEF have records related to the bill of sale for this horse from the original purchase from Germany? It seems like the plaintiff in this suit should subpoena those records as part of discovery.
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Itâs giving Eric Lamaze vibes.
How many of these uber wealthy professionals are sociopaths who have gotten rich from scamming others?
My own coach at 16 did the same thing to her best friend on a much smaller scale, but still happened.
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So many scams are variations of the same thing. If you go back a few years to the crazy lawsuit involving Caroline Roffman and Ben Meredith (I think that one is still dragging on), the plaintiff also was involved in owning a partial share of a horse, allegedly didnât know the actual purchase price of the horse that came from a European seller, and was also relying upon promises that the horse would be worth over half a million in a short period of time.
I really donât like scammers⊠but itâs pretty wild that people are STILL getting away with the same general con when it comes to high end horse sales. Caveat Emptor.
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The Roffman/Tarjan lawsuit was settled.
Details are a little off - in that case the agent for the sale of the horse told the owner she was worth a lot less due to bad flying changes, then used another agent to clear a sale of the same horse for roughly double and pocketed the difference.
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True, I donât want to victim blame her because it sounds like CP really worked his magic with this woman, but my god people. Contact the seller directly to confirm these things when this much money is changing hands.
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Oh - I was referring to the OTHER Roffman lawsuit. The one with Ruth Greene as a plaintiff. It was crazy. Greene apparently had a serious criminal record that the defendants did not seem to be aware of before they targeted her with the scam. Anyway⊠the court documents were pretty interesting reading. Rick âRockefellerâ Silvia was part of it at one point, but I think he may have somehow gotten himself out of the mess.
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Oh yeah, that one was weird. That was on the Meredith side of the fence.
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Yes. It involved a jumper.
I just looked! Itâs almost 6 years since it was first filed. It looks like the plaintiff has gone through multiple attorneys now. Gotta wonder how much has been spent on attorneys fees by the defendants as it drags on and on.
Oh well. They probably should have done a little extra research on Ruth Ann before running with this particular horse deal.
Indeed!!
As long as there are people with little knowledge and lots of money who want to make even more money without working for it, there will be easy marks for these scammers.
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When I worked for big hunter/jumper trainers, there were too many barriers for the clients to talk to the sellers. The seller dealt with an agent in Europe, who then presented the horse to the trainers. The sellers may not even have spoken English and wouldnât have even been at any try outs.
There would be a bill of sale for the seller, the buyer and yet another for the border. So much deception.
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False. The equine neck can only be imaged in one plane, not two. Cervical instability is still sometimes a diagnosis of exclusion or a postmortem diagnosis.
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Probably 30 years ago, there was a scandal involving a dressage horse who had undergone oral modifications and dental extractions to make the bits fit better. I think it was a stallion, and I think maybe it was Zoolog or Zooloog? I thought CP was involved in this incident too. Does anyone else remember this?
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When you are dealing with the dollar amounts of some of these horses, I would expect to (a) travel to see the horse myself, (b) have the bill of sale made directly to me (c ) make out 2 checks, one directly to the seller for the price of the horse and another to the agent to cover commissions and shipping feesâŠor else no sale.
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I think you or I definitely would. But that isnât, or wasnât, the culture in hunterland. It may have changed since my time there. The BNTs had/have an iron grip on the program and you, as the client, write checks and sometimes ride and show.
The BNT that I was a working student for a billion years ago had the ultimate control of all the horses on her property and often even veterinary treatments and their okaying were blanketly assumed to be under her control. You might find out what your horse had at a show as a line item or it might have just been listed as meds (for instance).
So if the BNT is shopping for a horse for you, there is little youâre really involved with except setting a budget, sometimes getting videos so you can show the pretty pony to your friends, and sending a check.
Not all BNTs worked this way of course (before someone gets their knickers in a twist) but it was remarkably common.
From a trainer perspective, it was kind of nice, you could ensure a horse had what it needed to succeed and win, because owners can be difficult, but though my trainer was very ethical, it would be very easy to be not ethical. It was not my cup of tea as an owner but horses were never just my hobby.
I no longer live in that land so I canât speak to how common or uncommon it is anymore, but perhaps people have gotten a bit more involved since some of the scandals have occurred. Although a fellow regional barn owner bought a horse just a few years ago, sight unseen, from Germany, on the advice of her trainer and I think that entire purchase from start to finish was trainer-led.
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