John Garcia of Angel Strategies is a person who has lied about his history, his capabilities, and his results. When one understands that John Garcia has built a business on myths and misinformation, it makes sense that he has no employees, no office, and a big mortgage.
There are many people with the name, John Garcia. The person this blog is about is John Paul Garcia who told us he was born in Santa Barbara, California. This is a photo taken of him in September of 2008.
Brief History by Bruce Camber and Hattie Bryant
On December 30, 2008 three of our business friends from Phoenix came to meet with John Garcia of Angel Strategies in his office located in Santa Ana as they were looking to raise money for their new venture. They came based on Hattie’s recommendation and the information that was on John Garcia’s website at http://angelstrategies.com/. Today that information has been removed, but we do have copies of all the earlier pages. Only place holder information remains at that URL. All references to substantial people throughout the angel investment community have been removed. Two of the three Phoenix men found John Garcia’s pitch to be so bold that it raised questions in their mind. One even said, “I smell a rat.”
Revelations.
Our friends in Phoenix began doing some research on the web. When they sent us this link -- http://www.john-garcia.ot1.com/ -- a carefully crafted statement by Robert Heaton, it was compelling. Bruce called Robert Heaton; he found him to be deeply informed and his story had a profound sense of truth. Later, we met Robert and he seems to us to be a hard-working, honest person who also lost $75,000 doing business with John Garcia of Angel Strategies and Innovateur.
One of the three Phoenix friends also pointed us to a video tape of the presentation John made to MBA students in a business incubator on a trip to Sweden. Now what John Garcia of Angel Strategies and Innovateur said to our three Phoenix friends, to me and my husband, and to so many others since about 2004 is no longer “he said/she said.” You can watch John Garcia of Angel Strategies and Innovateur make his false claims on YouTube today: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlkhNZNomwU
If by chance John Garcia is successful in removing that video, there are several other places on the web to watch it. Let us know and we will provide those links.
The Basic Misinformation and Lies.
John Garcia of Angel Strategies says that he has for 10 years had 226 investors who put in $1 million each year including himself. John Garcia says that those investors are getting a 60% internal rate of return or 12 times their annual investment each and every year. John Garcia says that Angel Strategies created six billionaires in Orange County due to its investment in Broadcom. John Garcia says that Angel Strategies has 126 companies currently in its portfolio and all of these companies are making money. John Garcia says that he has started and successfully exited 30 companies himself.
Since January 4, 2009 this is what we have learned after speaking with Angel Strategies investors and business owners who have paid John Garcia for his advisory services:
Not one of the statements that John Garcia of Angel Strategies uses in his standard presentations even comes close to being true.
· We cannot find one Angel Strategies $1 million investor much less 226.
· We cannot find one Angel Strategies investor who has earned a penny of profits. All have lost every penny they put in.
· We have been told by the co-founder and primary stockholder of Angel Strategies, that Angel Strategies did not invest in Broadcom or JetBlue.
· We cannot find one company in the Angel Strategies portfolio that is making money. For sure there is nothing close to 126. And the more we dig into the details, we do not believe that Angel Strategies owns interest in any company that is turning a profit. Angel Strategies probably doesn't have any value as of the date of this posting.
· We cannot find one company that is thriving as a result of a relationship with Angel Strategies since its formation in 1997.
· We have contacted most of the people who were mentioned within early January 2009 version of the Angel Strategies website -- the site that was used to perpetuate John Garcia’s myths – and here are a few of the comments that were made:
“I have made no money and of course have lost what I put in.”
“John Garcia betrayed me.”
“John Garcia has gone to the dark side.”
“John Garcia never raised a dollar for my company.”
“John Garcia wasted my time.”
"John Garcia takes money in amounts that people just walk away from because it costs too much to go get back $20K or $25K. “
“I was in denial for years about John Garcia. I guess it is now bad enough that I have to take some action.”
“If you do put together a class action suit, please call me back.”
“John Garcia charges people to learn what John does not know.”
“We need to put John Garcia in jail. He is dangerous.”
· John Garcia of Angel Strategies claimed people were his advisors when for years they had asked for their names to be removed from that site.
· We can’t find one company, much less 30, that John Garcia of Angel Strategies has created value for that would result in a happy exit for investors or founders.
More deceit and fabrications.
John Garcia told us in June 2008 that he was expecting Tony Gonzalez (the Kansas City Chiefs tight-end) to put $10 million into his new fund. A person close to John told us in February 2009 that John Garcia told him that Tony had put $1 million into John Garcia's new fund called Innovateur. We can confirm based upon communication with Tony's agent that both of John Garcia’s statements are false. Since then, the other partners of Innovateur have removed John Garcia from leadership.
John Garcia of Angel Strategies told a friend of ours that he had invested in films by Moctesuma Esparza, was an executive producer of a Moctesuma Esparza film and that he had gotten Mr. Esparza appointed to the board of directors of Wal-Mart and Calpers. Mr. Esparza confirms that John Garcia did none of these things.
Though we have lost $75,000 to John Garcia of Angel Strategies and now eight months of our life, we know the names of others who have lost $100,000, $75,000, $50,000, $25,000 and $20,000. We know of many who did not lose money but they lost months of time doing free work for John Garcia of Angel Strategies assuming he would make good on his promises which he did not do. It is clear from talking to all of these people that John Garcia has hit a “sweet spot” for himself and has hurt many. John Garcia of Angel Strategies takes money in amounts that people will not hire an attorney to recover as most attorneys advise against trying to win back these “small” amounts.
John Garcia also has a blog at http://yanyara.com/ The person who wrote the “Rookie Mistakes” that John Garcia is posting on that blog points out that John Garcia is doing so without attribution to the true author. This is plagiarism and amounts to intellectual property theft.
Conjecture and facts.
First, we do not think John Garcia has any money in the US. In January 2008 he took out a $936,000 mortgage on the home he and Christina Ohlsson Garcia have lived in since 1997. It was purchased in 1997 for $585,000 and in today’s market, it would not sell for much more than the current mortgage. Garcia has told us and others that his personal money is in Liechtenstein. That is currently being analyzed through connections in Washington, DC.
His physical office was located at 1515 N. Tustin Avenue, 5th floor, Santa Ana 92705. We discovered that he moved out of this office sometime in March 2009.
He keeps an “office” at a Postal Annex at 17601 17th Street #102 Tustin 92780
If you go to the current Angel Strategies website, you’ll see a high rise building with the Postal Annex address provided.
John Garcia cell: 714-687-5775
John Garcia email: jgarcia@innovateur.com
jgarcia@angelstrategies.com
john.innovateur@gmail.com
Restraining order.
John Garcia of Angel Strategies is very concerned about this process of discovery about him.
Hattie: “On Friday, February 20, 2009 a sheriff served me with a temporary restraining order. I had to appear in court on February 27 with our attorney. John Garcia said he is afraid of me. John Garcia claimed that he was afraid I might physically harm him or his family. John Garcia showed up in court with his wife and no attorney. In reviewing the details, the judge threw out his request and required him to write a check to me for my legal fees. The judge said that I am only exercising my right of free speech and that my activities do not meet the court’s definition of harassment. John Garcia of Angel Strategies does not like it that we now know who he is and that so many people are sending emails to others about the details of his history. As of May 28, 2009 John Garcia has not followed the judge's order to pay. We have filed a complaint which will ruin his credit. I guess since John Garcia of Angel Strategies has gotten away with his scam for so long he figures he is above the law."
Next steps.
In his statement for the court to initiate the restraining order, John Garcia of Angel Strategies described these emails and this entire process as character assassination. Character is an important attribute in business. It is something that seems to be placed on the back burner in place of greed and self-importance.
In that light, the truth hurts, but there can be healing. Apologies and restitution make one whole. It can never pay back the lost hours, days and years, but at least integrity and authenticity become the cornerstone of new dynamics. Our guess to date is that John Garcia of Angel Strategies could begin the process of making himself whole by making others whole and he could do it for less than $1M and many, many apologies.
The truth has a way of finding the light of day.
Yet, there just may be even deeper truths to be learned. We do not know. We do know that on January 4th we asked John Garcia of Angel Strategies to return our money. Bruce asked again politely and calmly on January 29th and he basically laughed at us. Next we hired an attorney and we have asked again. John Garcia of Angel Strategies has missed his deadlines but we are still hoping that he begins to do the right thing. In the meantime, we are glad to share this story with our friends, so they might share it with their friends and family so no more people are hurt by John Garcia of Angel Strategies.
