This question of loyalty keeps coming up. So I have to ask myself, being a self proclaimed loyalist when it comes to my friends and family, where do you draw the line?
Helgason was a long time "friend", but he certainly did not stand by us. He easily threw us away as soon as we called in our due notes and contracts. I guess if you want to stand by your friends Helgason and Balko that is fine, but just remember they will not return the favor.
Back to the question...where do you draw the line on friendship?
"Guilty or Innocent you stand by your friends, that is what you do".
O.K. so they only maliciously and with premeditation stole huge amounts of money from "friends" and ruined their credit ratings. Committed Bank and Mortgage Fraud. Stole money from children at a dance studio among many other crimes.
But where do you draw the line...?
Not that these crimes are not heinous enough, but what if they committed the following, would you still stand by them and protect them?
Pedophile charges, sexual assualt, murder?
Because you ALWAYS stand by friends Guilty or Innocent??
For me, I prefer to surround myself with people that have morals and ethics. Not people that would stand by me if I was a morally bankrupt criminal.
Just a thought for discussion.....
Victim T
P.S.
For all of those that want and post definitions.
Premeditation:The act of thinking about and planning a crime beforehand, rather than acting on impulse in a moment of passion or mindlessness.
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13 comments:
That is what friends do, you stand beside them, and dont judge them. You know Teress, they have not even been charged with anything. If they are so gulity, what is taking so long, hell you said they would be in prison by Christmas. You also keep telling us about ALL the victims, when there are only a couple of you blogging. Maybe you need some friends to talk to, that way you wont be so obsessed with trying to sway people to your way of thinking. You should only be so lucky to have a friend stand by you trough thick and thin. You dont judge people, that is for the lord to do. Get it.
Question, for the good friends. (commendable) This program they offered to investors. Where you offered it, did you buy with them, and if not why?
Yes we were offered it, we did not take them up on it, simply because we are not gambeling people, that is exactly what it was, a gamble. It was no different than investing money in some other area, there is always a risk. That is why there is NO sympathy for you so called victims. You took a risk, and you lost.
Oh, boy Tom's sister is upset with this blog. Just like she was on the Minnesota Forum.
We better remember to post the address of the prison Tom ultimately get's sent to so she can continue to support her innocent little brother.
She has no clue how much wrong doing Jon and Tom were up to.
Good Job Vicim T -- keep it up!!!
my guess is you did not have the credit rating. did anyone sign sheets of paper stating that this was a risky investment? that is going to trip them up big time in the coming civil suits.
if this is Tom's sister or who ever you are, you said it was a legit risk. If you would like, I would be happy to email you the appraisals Tom did on some properties that include the comps. I can also send you the MLS and county records to show you that he added rooms, square feet, etc. Let me know, would be happy to send them.
more2life wrote:
It really makes me laugh actually that you all have nothing better to do than worry about other peoples lives. Brian if you spent half as much time working as you did blogging yo wouldnt have to live off of your wife's income and be so worried about your financial future. Step up and be a man and a father and support your family. Everyone makes mistakes and maybe Tom didnt do everything the way he should have but he is a very good person and a great dad. He would never intentionally hurt anyone and his TRUE friends know that. Tom and Jill went out of their way to give and help everyone they could. Business was slow and the teachers were overpaid, that was a mistake but they really wanted to take care of their teacheres because they cared about them so much and they wanted to have the best studio around and they did. If anyone took the time to get to know them, really get to know them, they would see that they are great people who genuinely care about others and love their kids more than ever. This whole process has shown them however, that many people used them for what they could get out of them and when the money was gone so were they. Shame on you..What kind of people are you. I for one am totally disgusted with this whole dance world that I have only been a part of for a few short years but i will not be a part of for much longer. These are not the kind of people I want my children around. It is nothing but gossip and back stabbing. So watch out if you are at NRG don't trust anyone. They will stab you in the back the second you turn around. Including the teachers, they trash parents as much as the kids, it is sickening!!
There is so much more to life than dance. If there is one thing I will take from all of this is there is more to life than dance. The morals and values I teach my children mean more to me than the drama and gossip they learn in the dance world. I cannot wait for this year to end and get out.
How dare you criticize what you don't know. Is it wrong for a mother to address a deep depression and get the help she needs to be the best mom she can be. If so than yes Jill was wrong. She now is happier than ever, has 3 great and happy kids and gets along better than ever with Tom and the kids have 2 great happy homes instead of one horrible home. So if that is wrong than I guess they are terrible people
Was she depressed because the illegal money and her lifestyle ran out?? Poor little rich girl....never met her, but I hear that she is high maintenance.
jill is a pig
Anonymous,
My name is Terese and I have no issue telling you who I am because I have nothing to be ashasmed. If you are so proud of who you are and your "admirable friendship" with the Helgasons and Balkos, what don't you come public?
By the way standing by thieves that are sociopaths is not admirable, it is vile.
And to clarify, I never said they would be in prison by Christmas, that was "Black Angel" on the Topix site. It is to my understanding that the FBI still has thousands of documents/records to get through, along with bank records being scoured by their Forensic Accounts. This will take awhile...because they want this case to set an example.
My guess is Tom and Jon will be plea bargaining if not begging for 10-15vs. 20.
Victim T
18 months to complete investigation, this is the U S Attorneys flagship slam dunk-
""My name is Terese and I have no issue telling you who I am because I have nothing to be ashasmed. If you are so proud of who you are and your "admirable friendship" with the Helgasons and Balkos, what don't you come public?
By the way standing by thieves that are sociopaths is not admirable, it is vile.""
Why are you now saying that people should "come public" with who they are? I was as open as I could be on the BTM blog. All that did was get "victims" to load up and unload a pile of BS on me. What am I talking about? Go back to the BTM thread and read away.
Its no secret that John Hoff and I went at each other before and both of us threw out mostly jibberish that didn't have much to do with the actual topic. It quickly turned into a verbal shoving match and different "scenarios" were brought up and then asked to explain. Here is my answer to all of that.... I can't explain it. Want to know why?
Because that's all most of it is/was... scenarios and theories.
So I agree with Victim T AKA Teress, if someone is going to make a slanderous comment about someone by first/last name when the author doesn't know if it is actually true or a blatant lie... Then yes, the author should be a big enough person to put their own name to it.
When I went on the offensive against victims who have posted on here, I was offering another side to be considered.
Has Tom or Jon (or Amy and Jill) wronged me? No.
Have any of them EVER given me a reason (THEM.... not anyone posting here) to think badly of them or do anything that would make me question their intergrity? NO.
Points I made on the BTM blog were that everyone is innocent until proven guilty. In this case though, no one has been arrested or charged with anything.
As I said in private to John Hoff, "IF" the end result with all of this is Tom is arrested, charged, tried and convicted... I will be disappointed with him, BUT... I will continue to be his friend.
With that being said, to the victims who have stated their opinions and how they were wronged, I am sorry "IF" you were actually wronged and lied to and for going on the offensive about it.
AT THE SAME TIME... I will continue to stand by my statements about being innocent until proven guilty, none of them have ever attempted to wrong me at any point nor have they ever shown me a side of their personalities that would suggest they would knowingly wrong anyone.
Whoever just posted about any investment being a risk.... I agree with that. I personally don't think it would be fair for a person to say they were scammed if a system is legal but the person did not fully understand the process or risks involved.
If I were to invest money in the stock market and the market crashed, I would not say that it was the brokers fault. Is that a fair comparison? Maybe or maybe not. BUT... I do know that real estate in the Twin City metro area has been hit hard. My saying that Tom and Jon are not responsible fot that is legitimate.
For those who have accused me of knowing more than I say, was taught Tom's "craft" and being a role player and made comments about me personally that were nothing more than opinions... Take Victim T's advice and stand behind your comments. Until you do that, I still see you as whining "who me" babies who didn't understand something and now are hell bent on publicly going after people (even people who don't agree with your point of view), unless you step up and stand behind YOU are.
That being said, I personally don't agree with many of the things that Teress and John Hoff have said nor do I agree with how they said some of it BUT.... I will admit in public that because they had the decency to state who they were, I will respect their point of view and (ducking for cover) can appreciate their desires to state their cases. It doesn't mean I will agree with them but I respect their efforts to stand up for what they believe.
None of you have to agree with me either. I am sorry that some of you were once friends with Tom and/or Jon but, no longer are.
I will not say I am sorry for knowing them or being a friend of theirs.
Further, I have never met or even talked to Jons wife, Amy and while I have known Jill almost as long as Tom.... I think it is disgusting what people on these blogs have said about them and accused them of. I am sure they have had to deal with a crap storm most of us will never have to face and why? Because they were married to someone?
Thats all I have to say about them and if Amy or Jill read this.... I am sorry you guys are going thru this and for what others have accused you of and/or called you.
I wish you guys well.
So.. I have said my piece and whether or not any of you choose to accept it as my point of view, I can't help that.
Personally, I hope that the end result of all of this will be that no one goes to jail and anyone who has been accused of anything or feel they were wronged... I hope everything works for you.
-Jim Watkins
Jim,
First of all thank you for coming forward, I truly did not know who you were. I would like to address a couple of issues.
First,: “ They have not been charged with anything”
They do have 3 judgments against them in our case for breach of contract on promissory notes. This judgment was issued on November 21, 2007 and they have yet to comply with the judge’s order. We received these judgments even though they refused to talk in their own defense. So they may not have been indicted in the federal case, in my book they are guilty when it relates to me. We are still working on the fraud case which relates to the properties.
Risk; “If the stock mark market crashed would you hold them responsible?”
We did not “ invest” in the real estate market. We never bought property hoping “risking” that it would increase in value, i.e. purchasing a house for 100K and hoping that in a few years it would be worth 110K. We simply borrowed them our credit so they could buy themselves more property. By the way we never would have done it, but Jon was a longtime friend and asked for our “assistance” to help him out. In turn for this they gave us 2K at closing, which we later learned was completely illegal. Once the properties closed ( for us 2 new construction townhouses) they immediately had us sign quick claim deeds to put them back in their names. They then signed paperwork that they would get the mortgages out of our names in exactly 2 years. In the meantime, they would completely cover all the expenses related to the mortgage, send us a check each month and then in turn we would send the check to the mortgage company. I know it is getting confusing, but pay attention…. By doing this they could show the banks that they had major assets with no liabilities. So of course when the “buy backs” came due, they would not take our phone calls.
Once they no longer accepted our phone calls, we got nervous and called the title company, Total Tile ( which we later discovered they owned) for our paperwork. Once I told them what we were looking for, they said all our paperwork was missing?? Even though the courts asked them to produce the documents, they never did. If they still exist, the documents are now with the FBI.
After much further investigation and many phone calls, we discovered why they did not want us to see the “final” paperwork. The mortgage company had given Complete Mortgage (owned by Helgason and Balko) a kick back to get us to sign a mortgage with a higher interest rate than we qualified for (Fraud). Also at closing the Property Management Company, Citiwide Management (owned by Helgason/Balko), was given an “advance” for managing the rental property. Again we had no idea. I know you might think, did you not see the paperwork at closing?? The answer is no, they simply did not give us all the”final” paperwork to see.
So for the people that say they have no sympathy for the victims, they might not realize that we were not in this for a risky get rich investment. We were just simply scammed.
Jim, I realize you were not victimized by these two. But how would you feel if they had done this to you or one of your family members?
I know some of you might wonder why this is such an emotional/passionate issue for me. I will explain more tomorrow after our court hearing. It truly has more meaning to me than just financial.
I hope this evening finds you and your families well.
Victim T
Jim Watkins and I have communicated in private and I've made it known that I think Jim risks an otherwise unsullied rep by continuing to support Tom and Jon. And I emphasize: an otherwise unsullied reputation.
Despite initially telling a fib about who he was on the BTM Blog, (hardly an uncommon deed on the internet) and a lot of heated back and forth that resulted directly from that small act, Jim has not been charged with anything and his major pitfall appears to be too much loyalty to his friends, too much willingness to believe they couldn't have done the things they are accused of doing, and speaking out for them in public.
I, for one, am eager to hear how the court hearing goes. Very little has come out about TJ Waconia but this hearing may put more information in the public eye. I really hope the press is there and reports on it.
The poster called "Don Corleone" claims a strong link between TJ and DW Investments. Well, I've taken some of Don's info and forwarded it where it may have an impact. Stay tuned.
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