SWIFT FRAUD - Straphon Eubanks / Union Trade Company
This horrific financial matter began approximately 6 months ago and involved a financial instrument (SBLC) supplied by Mr John S Diak to Union Trade Company.Union Trade Company owns another entity named the Humanitarian Charitable Foundation.
The principal of this foundation is Mr Straphon Eubanks of Lancaster, MA and Albany, NY. The purpose of these two groups is to fund projects across the world using the financial instruments that again were provided by Mr Diak. Starting early May 2017 profits from the trade of the SBLC started to accumulate. Instantly, the first $1mm Euro was ordered paid to Mr Diak by Deutsche Bank, Frankfurt (please see the attached below).
The order was signed by an individual, Mr Martin Shepard, shown as a "director" at Union Trade Company. In addition to the $1mm Euro already presented, the Foundation and Union Trade Company owed Mr Diak and additional $5mm Euro that was to be paid out. At this point, the FRAUD really began. Mr Diak at the time was working with a Mr Richard Freeman who is part of the Humanitarian Charitable Foundation.
He would have daily calls in early May where Richard Freeman would consistently promise that funds were being released. And each day forward, Mr Richard Freeman would make the same empty promises. At one point in May, Freeman even told Diak that the funds that were held for Mr Diak in Frankfurt would be sent domestically via Citi Bank New York for "simplicity". Days and days went by with no funds being wired from Citi Bank New York as Richard Freeman daily promised.
At this point (now early June), Richard Freeman indicated to Mr Diak that there were "issues" with making the transfer from Citi Bank to Mr Diak's partner Lumina Information Technologies. Richard Freeman would apologize profusely for the Citi Bank wire "issues." Finally, on 6/3/2017, Richard Freeman advised John Diak that the Citi "issues" could not be resolved. Richard Freeman's resolution to the problem was to order the initial funds to be wired via Swift MT103 to Lumina. An email from Richard Freeman was sent to Mr Diak as seen below:
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Date: Jun 3, 2017 6:28 PM Subject:
Fwd: Citibank To: "john diak" Cc: Subject: Fwd:
Re: Citibank Subject: Resolution to Citibank problem
Dear Mr.Diak, I am so sorry that the attempt to have a payment made through Citibank turn into such a failure. I will have the situation corrected come Monday, June 5th, 2017. I will have an MT103 transfer sent to the Lumina account information that you sent to me. They should receive the funds in their account by Tuesday afternoon.
A MT103 from my bank to their bank should take 24 hours. I hope that this will rectify the situation that was caused by Citibank.
Respectfully, Account Manger. Richard Freeman
The intent by Union Trade Company and the Foundation were quite clear.
However, once again, Richard Freeman failed to honor the commitment in his email. At this point, Mr Robert Smith of Lumina then contacted Richard Freeman approximately 6/16/2017 and Freeman told Mr Smith that it was his fault but come Monday (6/19/2017) the Swift MT103 would be finally sent out. That brings the matter to 6/25/2017. Mssrs Richard Freeman, Martin Shepard nor Straphon Eubanks have yet to honor any of their commitments.
This matter MUST be brought to a positive and honorable conclusion as soon as possible.The deception and fraud that occurred must be remedied immediately so that the dignity and integrity of all be maintained.