People Who Gave Money to Atlanta Real Estate Investors Say They Lost Tens of Thousands of Dollars – WSB-TV Channel 2

ATLANTA — They invested with an Atlanta real estate professional, but they don’t know what happened to their money.

Justin Gray, Channel 2 Consumer Investigator I have spoken to several investors who have similar stories.

“There’s an opportunity for everybody to come in and make $100,000, $150,000, even $200,000 over the next 18 months just by flipping properties,” Duron Dimmock said in a cellphone video.

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Ben Lee recorded excerpts of Dimmock’s real estate speech at Fort Campbell in Kentucky.

“I was really impressed with what he was saying. I mean, he was really good,” Lee said.

“The market is crazy,” Dimmock said in a cellphone video.

As Lee prepared to leave the military, the investment opportunity seemed attractive.

“I just took a leap of faith,” Lee said.

He paid a $5,000 coaching fee to get started and invested an additional $15,000. But you don’t have to attend one of Dimmock’s in-person presentations.

“The problem is you’re complacent. And you’re happy with where you’re at,” Dimmock said in a video posted to Instagram.

The Atlanta real estate investor is also pitching on social media.

“He knows how to talk,” Daphne Bonilla said.

She first met Dimmock on a movie set in Atlanta. She invested $20,000 with him.

“The agreement provided that I would receive at least 20% of my investment within 90 days of the start of this project,” Bonilla said.

“I knew Duron in high school,” Zuri Farngalo said.

Zuri and his wife Eartha Petersen Farngalo were living in New York but turned to Dimmock because they wanted to flip houses in Atlanta.

“We really seized this opportunity. That someone who presents themselves as an expert in this field can do this remotely,” said Eartha Petersen Farngalo.

“You gave him $30,000. What do you have to show for it?” Justin Gray asked.

“Nothing,” Petersen Farngalo replied.

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The Farngalos, Ben Lee and Daphne Bonilla all had similar reasons for wanting to invest, and all find themselves in a similar situation today.

“I was in communication with him and his assistant the whole time until he stopped responding,” Lee said.

“He started ghosting me. He stopped responding. He was making excuses,” Bonilla said.

“We never saw any property. We never had any details,” Petersen Farngalo said.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, everything is in place,” Duron Dimmock said during a Zoom interview as he checked out work on an Atlanta property he is renovating.

“You can’t have the success I have had, you can’t accomplish the things I’ve accomplished by stealing from people. It’s not possible,” Dimmock said.

He said soaring interest rates and inflation changed the game overnight as these investors sought a quick return.

“Materials went up, things went up. It just happened. I lost almost everything,” Dimmock said.

He showed Gray his contract which states at the top that “the client understands that the real estate market may change unexpectedly, rendering some of the information provided by the consultant null and void.”

“People who invest and want a quick return on investment don’t understand this process,” Dimmock said.

The Farngalos do not believe this argument.

Their lawyer said $10,000 of what they were fighting for was a wire transfer for their initial investment. Dimmock wanted it faster, so they sent it a second time via Venmo.

“You send it to me this way. It’s going to take too long. Send it to me the faster digital method and I’ll send you the wire transfer. And that never happened,” attorney Tashia Zeigler said.

“Do you owe them $10,000? Does anybody owe them $10,000?” Justin Gray asked Dimmock.

“GWP owes them $10,000. Yes,” Dimmock replied.

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Dimmock claimed that GWP Consulting LLC owes the money, not him. His company is GWP Holdings. Both companies are listed as dissolved in the Secretary of State’s records.

Dimmock said Daphne Bonilla’s money is still invested in a project that is not finished.

“The only remedy is to give me a little more time. I can fix the problem,” Dimmock said.

As for Ben Lee, “I’ll tell you straight, Ben Lee is an honest man. Ben Lee is going to be restored to his rights,” Dimmock said.

Lee said he had heard that before.

“They gave me all these dates saying I would get paid, to make payment arrangements. But every time the day came, no one responded,” Lee said.

“We certainly don’t have a property. I think that’s the biggest pain point in this, right? This is $30,000 that we could have invested in the market. We could have invested in a real property,” Petersen Farngalo said.

Dimmock claimed the Farngalos had pulled out of three projects and lost pocket money because of it.

In a default judgment, a Cobb County court ordered GWP Consulting to pay the Farngalos $30,000 plus attorneys’ fees.

They have not seen a single cent of this money. They are also suing Duron Dimmock directly.

That case remains open, along with separate lawsuits filed by Ben Lee and Daphne Bonilla.

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