Another OSO Gone Bad - captnate steals from Jennifur Molter Trust Fund
 

The following statement of facts has been prepared and released by: Bob Barnhart, OSO Bobthebuilder; John Barkley, OSO NaplesBaja and Hans Haedelt, OSO Rockstrmkr:

OSO captnate, Nathan ( Nate) Hunt, was today arrested for stealing over $7,400.00 from “The Jennifur Molter Trust.” Myself and a few of my closest friends at Ft Myers Offshore ( FMO) have known of this situation since early December, 2007 but have not been able to speak about it publicly because of the ongoing police investigation that we had requested. Let me start from the beginning. We can only state the facts as we know them and will lay it out for you as best we can.

Many of you here are aware of the tragic offshore boating accident off Marco Island, FL in January of 2007. Four people lost their lives that day but 16 year old Jennifur Molter survived it. She lost her mother, brother, sister and her sisters fiancée’. Our FMO group decided to hold a fund raiser to help Jennifur achieve her goal of getting a college education. Many here on OSO as well as the public opened their hearts and their wallets and approximately $26,000.00 was raised. Nate Hunt, then being part of our FMO group was very involved with the fund raising, having secured the Bayfront complex for our use and also secured several items for auction. It appeared that his heart at that time, was in the right place. He also knew the Molter family and we had asked him to be the liaison between our FMO group and the family. With the amount of money involved, we felt it appropriate that it go into a Trust so that it would both be safe and used as intended – for Jennifur’s future education. Hans Haedelt ( OSO rockstrmkr ) used his local connections to have a lawyer draw up the Trust. Neither Hans nor myself are US citizens and were therefore unable to serve as trustees. Nate and John Barkley had offered to serve as the two trustees. The Trust was also set up so that any withdrawals required 2 signatures. We felt we had taken all of the appropriate steps to protect the money that was raised.

Jennifur started her first semester at Edison College in Naples in September, 2007. She achieved a 4.0 average on her subjects in that semester and continues to do well. On Monday December 3, 2007 we received a call from Jennifur informing us that Nate was not being responsive to her requests for second semester tuition and money to cover her books. After discussion amongst the three of us Hans H; John B; and myself ) a decision was made to verify that all of the money was still safely in the account. It was not and once we had completed our own internal investigation the matter was turned over to the Naples City Police. It was also discovered that Nate had forged John Barkley’s signature on one of the checks. John, is a Sergeant with the Naples City Police. The three of us met with Nate on Thursday evening December 5, 2007 for the purpose of giving Nate an opportunity to explain things ( which he could not) and also to ask for his resignation as a trustee which we secured. John Wilkinson ( OSO Specialized ) is now the second trustee for the Trust.

We feel that we have a strong case to ask the Bank involved to replace the funds that they made available to Nate where checks only had one signature and not the two required by the Trust documents. There are sufficient funds in the account that Jennifer can continue her education for some time to come, while all of this gets sorted out.

The investigation is now complete, charges have been filed, an arrest has been made and now we will wait for this matter to go to trial in due coarse. Hopefully justice will be served.

Bob, John, Hans.

http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2008/...vors-trust-fu/

WTF? That is sad. Sometimes I wonder what the heck people think these days. I know I'm not getting old......so what is it?

It really is unbelievable that someone placed in a position of trust would do this. Jennifur has suffered so much tragedy in her life. Remarkably she has taken this well an continues to do well in College.

I got a report from Naples today as well where Nate was calling around looking for someone to post $10,000.00 bail for him. He was saying that he had been arrested for failing to pay child support. He really is a piece of work.

Bob

Sorry to hear that guys, you did an awesome job helping out. hopefully the bank will right everything.

It's unfortunate when someone who you think is looking out for the best interest of someone and is genuine pulls a stunt like this....It makes it very hard to trust anyone, stealing from a trust fund set up to help someone in need who has had to endure the loss of loved ones is truly inexcusable...

I don't know any of the persons involved but remember the accident when it was reported here on "OSO" .

For somebody to try and use that for their personal gain is the lowest of low in my book...:mad:

Sounds like a good opportunity to help re-fund the pool of college money so we can turn this from a bad to a good again. Can you let us know where we can donate?

That is both kind and generous but for now I feel we should wait on that. There is still about $15K in the Trust which is plenty for now. If we get the bank to come good for their mistake we will be in good shape. We also think the court will order restitution but I have no idea where Nate would get the money from.
Bob

I hope it all works out, please keep us posted!

Bob, John, And Hans,
What is wrong with people. My heart is now in my lower ab. area. This just sucks. I echo what Jay has said. Let us know if any contributions are needed.
Gives boating and OSO a bad rep. Ken

Ken, as Hans was quoted in the Naples News article, he was a bad apple, and certainly we should not let his actions cast a bad light on the rest of OSO or Ft Myers Offshore. All of us were angry and hurt and disappointed when we found out about this terrible act, but now, hopefully, justice will be served, the bank will make good on their part, and we can move on.

The fact remains that we did a wonderful thing and this young lady who went through a heart-wrenching experience will still have her college expenses covered thanks to the tireless efforts of Bob Barnhart and the generosity of the offshore community.