California  |  Credit and Debt Law

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11/15/09, 3:40 pm

Legal Question


A friend of a close friend has borrowed 500,000 I had from an inheritance to make an investment.

At the time she promised to pay interest, and verbally promised her many foreign properties as collateral. She is Chinese and invests for a living. Since she really does have the foreign property and several companies I agreed (I did a search and verified her company registration as well as properties bought/sold). Soon after the loan she stopped paying interest, blaming the economy. Soon after when I asked for a promissory note, she reneged on promises of collateral, saying in no event will she endanger her Chinese assets. I am honestly shocked and am in unfamiliar territory. I have now only her non-notarized signature (she refused to go to the notary) on a promissory note. And although the note mentions collateral would be specified, no collateral was ever specified.

It's been a year and few months since first default of interest payments. Now, what are my chances for pursuing legal action? What can I expect without collateral or notarized signature? And how can I serve justice on this woman?

She has no property in the US but has ~2 million in loans (w/ my + some of her own money ) which she's trying to recover. She has numerous properties in China which she's refusing to offer as collateral.


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