My Experiences Investing with John P. Garcia, and Angel Strategies.

Waiver: You are entering a private website. By reading this you agree not to hold any party responsible for any element of this text. This information is believed to be correct. However, before taking any related action, you agree to independently check the facts for yourself, and form an independent opinion.

John P. Garcia,  made the following representations to me as a prospective investor:

  1. Angel Strategies had over 200 investors that committed $1M annually to the fund.
  2. The rate of new investments by Angel Strategies was around one deal per week.
  3. There were eight full time analysts working for Angel Strategies in another building. He had meetings in this one man office to avoid the host of startups constantly seeking funding.
  4. Angel Strategies differentiates itself from other investors by investing throughout the life of a company from seed funding to $100M public companies.
  5. John Garcia referred to Solana Med Spas many times as an important and lucrative investment. I later asked him, over several months, why their web site was down. He professed not to know why.
  6. Angel Strategies investments in Jet Blue, Krispy Kreme, and Broadcom were claimed.
  7. He spoke at length about various celebrities he said that he knew, and some of his best investments, which included Solana Med-Spas, which was soon to be profitably sold. I was "lucky" to be getting in at this time.
  8. As a new investor in Angel Strategies, I was not given the information on the 50 or so companies that John Garcia claimed Angel Strategies had invested in prior to my investment.  Although this information is usually available to prospective investors, Garcia claimed for confidentiality reasons that he could not provide it. 
  9. His new company, Innovateur Capital, had verbal agreements from investors who would put in $10M to be invested in the fund within 3 months.
  10. John stated that he was independently wealthy from profits in a startup early in his carrier.
  11. He offered me my money back when I expressed concerns about his practices. (The money however, was not returned - and my emails started to bounce).

Let me share with you the facts I know at this time:

About 6 months after investing I received a spreadsheet from John Garcia listing the 25 investment assets of Angel Strategies. The stated value was $34M. I later checked these companies using public records, web searches, phone data bases etc. Where there was a contact listed I attempted to communicate with them.

I assumed the company had no, or very low, value if any of the following conditions were met:

  • The company advised me that Angel Strategies in fact had no investment.
  • No trace of the company was found during an extensive web search or web site ownership by the company had lapsed.
  • Public records showed the company had stopped trading.
  • The web site was years out of date.

Almost all the companies had no value. Three companies remained that did not respond. They may be of some value. However, this seems unlikely given the results of the other 22.

Other facts:

  1. I have never received an official investment statement from Innovateur or Angel Strategies.
  2. When I pressed John Garcia to provide documentation of assets, I was told repeatedly that a computer problem prevented that.
  3. During this time John Garcia volunteered that in three cases the "stock ownership was disputed" by the companies he had invested in.
  4. It appears to be untrue that John Garcia is independently wealth now, or when he made the claim to me. It may be, as he claimed, that his money is off-shore. However, potential investors should know that his house is in foreclosure and his partners have an action against him for reneging on a $10000 promissory note.
  5. About one year after investing in In... Capital  (John Garcia's new venture at the time), John confirmed there were no investors in the fund. John Garcia took an income from the LLC.
  6. I have not been able to find any evidence to confirm that Angel Strategies was ever an investor in Broadcom, Jet Blue, Wyse, Krispy Kreme etc, or indeed had any successful investment.
  7. I have never been able to document that there are any $1M investors in Angel Strategies. John Garcia never provided as a reference a single $1M investor.
  8. The "other office" turned out to be a Postal Annex: no eight analysts.
  9. Many of the advisors prominently listed on Garcia’s original Angel Strategies 12/2008 website either have not been actively involved or are no longer involved with Angel Strategies.

Many small companies do not succeed. When investing in a private fund we expect a significant risk. However, when facts related to past investment performance and existing assets are misstated - that is a different thing.

My advice to anyone investing in any LLC fund is:

  • Check every verbal assertion made during the sale.
  • Check the asset paperwork - walk away if you are put off for any reason. "He with the Pecos, has the say-so!"
  • Check references you are given, as well as those you find independently.
  • Check with the State of California Department of Corporations. Search for the name of the seller.

 

Other John Garcia information:

Robert Heaton
jgfb@ot1.com

 

  
 
Updates

06/15/10 - John P. Garcia cited for breach of contract in another court filing.

6/1/10 - $125K Judgment awarded against John P. Garcia.

05/12/10 - John P. Garcia's company Innovateur wound up, returning 12c in the dollar to investors.

6/1/10 - $125K Judgment awarded against John P. Garcia.

10/30/09 - John Garcia cited by Angel Strategies investor for fraud in Santa Ana court filing.

10/19/09 - John Garcia is cited by former business partners for non-payment.

10/16/09 - John Garcia's activities covered in Swedish Newspaper

9/17/09 - John Garcia cited in Department of Corporations Desist and Refrain order.

5/31/09 - Former John Garcia clients complain in LA Times

03/21/09 - Ex Angel Strategies and Innovateur investors start blog to expose John P. Garcia.

03/15/09 - Innovateur partners separate from John P. Garcia on ethics concerns.

12/30/08 - this site placed on the internet.

 

 
   

Update, March 22nd 2009

The above has now been modified. The partners of John Garcia investment company, Innovateur, have contacted me and stated that they have separated from him, and say he is no longer part of the management of that company. They were also partners of Angel Strategies, and but claim they were victims. I have not verified this. However, it seems reasonable to remove their names, and the name of the company, pending verification.

Also, I corrected the date of Angel Strategies site which should be 12/2008, not 12/2009, as the internet archives show.

Since my initial posting in December 2008, there have been a number of changes. The Angel Strategies web site has been completely re-vamped. Names of questionable partners and investors have been removed.

I have also been approached by a number of folks who stated they were defrauded by John Garcia (or that he took their money and did nothing for it). Some have been very active in researching these issues, and finding a wealth of new evidence that goes back may years. For this I am very grateful.

 

Update, September 21st 2009

John Garcia is being cited with a Desist and Refrain Order by the California Department of Corporations. Many thanks to those own have made this, and other actions, possible. Mr. Garcia has continued to attempt to raise investment funds. However, the negative presence on the web means that anyone doing reasonable due diligence can now easily see this information.