Help with Possible Fraud with IME Chicago Scrap Yard & Nova Metals / Nova Smelting

Has anyone had any troubles with the IME Chicago Scrap Yard?

I believe that I am being scammed by them and another individual (Larry Tan) thats going under the business names Arco Engineering, Tan Engineering, Nova Metals or Nova Smelting. I see that IME was in lots of crap in 2012 for buying millions in illegal Chicago City scrap. Copper was sold, and we are in possession of a check that the bank said that they would not honor do to no funds available. If I get my money or full amount of product back, I will am willing to drop things... but apparently something is obviously very wrong.

We have contacted the Police and the FBI (due to the dollar amount and since it is across 2 states) as well. Any thoughts or help that you guys can give me would be greatly appreciated.

-Falax41

Used to be a ewaste buyer with the name Arcoa out of Chicago but don't know if their the same ones. No help there,,,

I had a buyer give me a bad check (in my state) and I got ahold of the county prosecutors office and filed charges and they sent them a 10 day letter. They had 10 days to get the money to the prosecutor or a warrant would be issued. Needless to say, I finally got my money.

Other than that,,, Good luck.

Home - arcoausaarcoausa

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Originally Posted by Mechanic688

Used to be a ewaste buyer with the name Arcoa]

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Arcoa is a very legit e-waste company.

These guys are straight up thieves!!! 70K of product stolen and not one officer in Chicago to do a darn thing about it. We could not even get a cop to show up shy of shooting someone!!! What a joke!!! Everyone out there is just stating that It is a civil matter, even though check deception, fraud and buying product from someone that does not clearly own it is all against the law.

over the amount of money you have stated why have you not gone back to the place of business in person?

We were there all day today. I believe the attorney may get it straightened up since we have shown felony fraud, felony check deception, unlicensed DBA while actually doing business in Cook County, purchase of stolen goods, theft class 2, Recyclable Metal Purchase Registration Law violations and more. The owner of IME could be looking real jail time over this as well as the person that authorized the purchase. The police, sheriff, Attorney General, State Attorney for Cook County and the bank have all refused to help. By tomorrow, the police will be at the yard even if I have to drive my truck thru the building to force them there. I will hopefully be able to get my product back or the funds physically in hand -- no paper check, cashiers check or money order crap.

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Originally Posted by falax41

We were there all day today. I believe the attorney may get it straightened up since we have shown felony fraud, felony check deception, unlicensed DBA while actually doing business in Cook County, purchase of stolen goods, theft class 2, Recyclable Metal Purchase Registration Law violations and more. The owner of IME could be looking real jail time over this as well as the person that authorized the purchase. The police, sheriff, Attorney General, State Attorney for Cook County and the bank have all refused to help. By tomorrow, the police will be at the yard even if I have to drive my truck thru the building to force them there. I will hopefully be able to get my product back or the funds physically in hand -- no paper check, cashiers check or money order crap.

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Sorry to hear about this and I wish you luck.......It's a shame people do biz in this manner

Have you done business with them prior to this ? If they were in hot water in 2012 why would you use them as opposed to the many qualified buyers on this forum ? Somthing doesn't sound right about this to me .

Dealing with bounced checks is one of the more distasteful parts of being in business. It does come with the territory. Very easy to loose your cool and go off on a wild tangent.

I would go there every day, they need to get stuff from the office I would think. Any scrap metal left? Can you get "paid" in metal for what they owe you? Or working equipment? If they are there and won't let you in call the cops tell them you think a burglary is in the process... they will show up!

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Originally Posted by hobo finds

I would go there every day, they need to get stuff from the office I would think. Any scrap metal left? Can you get "paid" in metal for what they owe you? Or working equipment? If they are there and won't let you in call the cops tell them you think a burglary is in the process... they will show up!

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I think making a false report to the police is punishable by law

Sorry to say that until they are forced or have a judgement against them by a court, civil or criminal, to pay you they probably will not. Lawyers can say anything, threaten anything and send a stack of papers demanding anything. But until it is backed up by a court order you will not see a dime. The advice you were given to start in civil court it a sound one. Burden of proof is generally less than what is required in criminal court. You also have ghe advantage of presenting your case withh all the laws you believe they are in violation of and if valid you may get a judge who would recommebd the case go to a criminal trial.

@ Hobo please dont ever do what you suggested. What happens if someone(police or civilian) gets hurt or killed trying to get there because of a false report being called in.

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Originally Posted by Scrappah

Dealing with bounced checks is one of the more distasteful parts of being in business. It does come with the territory. Very easy to loose your cool and go off on a wild tangent.

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Man you got that right. I had to deal with this in my old business from time to time. The bigger the city the individual is in, the less likely the authorities would be willing to do anything about it. I had a lawyer hounding a business in Las Vegas and he changed addresses. I had his new address, and it was a slightly different company name and he just gave up because he knew that was standard operating procedure with the guys who know how to work the system.

Don't even get me started on the bankruptcy system. I chased several people into that maze and it really is NOT set up to get you your money. It is set up to make all the lawyers that feed off the system lots of money, and to eventually let the bankrupting company off the hook once they have been sucked dry by the leeches.

Sucks. Best advice I got. Don't throw good money away chasing bad money. In most cases it's gone, move on.

My guy did not do his research. Not sure what he was thinking or attempting in general.

I wanted everyone to know that we did get our copper back from the Yard. The attorneys wrote a release agreement between my business and IME, and they did do the right thing. It took a while and cost me quite a bit of lost expenses, but getting it back was the only way to remedy what happened.

Thanks everyone for you help and suggestions!!!

At least it worked out in the end.

Business law can be a touchy subject- especially since in a lot of states and circumstances, the business can be a separate legal entity. So, in theory, you could get a judgement against an LLC or corporation, but all the people in the company could be found not guilty.

Legal topics are always a confusing minefield- it does make for good lawyer job security....

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Originally Posted by Metalbestos

Have you done business with them prior to this ? If they were in hot water in 2012 why would you use them as opposed to the many qualified buyers on this forum ? Something doesn't sound right about this to me .

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Rant time...

This post is something else. I agree that the OP should have done his due diligence and conducted better research before sending a load but why pus the dependence on the forum's buyers? While SMF is truly blessed to have a few really good buyers on the forum, buyers don't work for free. The desire to side-step a middleman to go straight to a smelter/refiner/end user is the reason capitalism works in this country. Who wants their hard earned product to be taxed by a middle man? It's so inflammatory to suggest that because someone is industrious enough to attempt to climb to the next level of the game that "something doesn't sound right." Being scared to rise your business up and grown screams lack of ambition.

A man will NEVER get rich selling to a middle man because that person HAS to take some for himself. Of course I have used one myself, just like every other person on this forum has, but the desire to grow past that is the american dream man! Every move I make for Electrowaste Recycling is an attempt to grow. My first shop was 2,300 sq ft., my next one was 6,800 which seemed like overkill. June 15th we move into a building that is over 70,000sq feet. I went from no forklift, to a lift but no dock, to 5 lifts and 8 docks. ALL IN AN ATTEMPT to cut out the middle man! I want to be able to negotiate full truckloads of EVERYTHING! I started shipping small boxes and now I'll have 5 docks exclusively to stage trucks. I'm not bragging I'm just saying that I am all in and when I have a chance to bypass the middle man I am going to take it. No need to begrudge a man for taking a chance and falling flat; at least he took a chance.

Jeremy