Twice-Jailed "Priest" Accused Of "Preying" On Builders, Leaving Them "On Their Knees" After Clipping Them For Upfront Fee$ On Sour Loan Promises

Much like financially strapped homeowners trying to save their homes, it appears that some builders and developers whose financing sources have dried up can be equally vulnerable to upfront fee, finance-related deals that may not be kosher. In this light, the St. Petersburg Times recently reported the story of THIS MAN:

• [T]he Very Rev. Father Barney Canada, who ran Providence Funding, a self-proclaimed faith-based commercial lender headquartered near the University of Notre Dame. In his black clerical garb and white collar, Canada claimed to be a priest from a shadowy 19th-century offshoot of the Roman Catholic Church.

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• "He comes across as legitimate and knowledgeable with the correct connections. We played the game,'' [one Miami developer who claims Canada clipped him for $300,000] says. "I've been burned by four or five other people, too. But not anywhere near that amount.''

• Canada used his priestly routine to take developers across Florida and beyond for upward of a million dollars in fees the past year, records show. Not a single loan has closed, and none of the applicants knew that Canada had been incarcerated twice in the 1990s for running "advance fee" lending scams that defrauded businessmen just like themselves.

For more, see Father Barney takes fees, leaves a "host" of developers behind.