We received this from reader and Lavelle Ward fraud victim ARB* near the end of January 2012:
In 2004, I was a struggling art school graduate living on the North side of Chicago. I responded to an ad placed on Craig’s List by Lavelle Ward. He hired me to design a medieval-style crest (similar to a coat of arms) to use as a logo for his imaginary real estate company. Although he seemed very friendly, my initial impression of the guy was that he seemed to exaggerate quite a bit, and his speech was overly rehearsed and artificial. Listening to him speak was like watching an ambitious (but bad) actor perform. This made me a bit suspicious. One has to wonder why a self-labeled real estate developer who claims to have connections to Donald Trump would be trying so hard to impress a hungry, broke, out of work, art school graduate…
I didn’t believe the Donald Trump portion of the story, but I was trying to make rent and I was desperate for any freelance work. I finished the logo in the agreed amount of time, and made some revisions to it based on his feedback. Lavelle was happy with the final logo and he said he would be mailing me a check.
The check never came.
I followed up with him. At first, he claimed to have mailed it and tried to blame it on the post office. Later, he simply refused to respond to my emails. Being young and inexperienced, I never drafted any contract for him to sign. The price was agreed upon via email correspondence, so I was reluctant to take any legal action. Additionally, I was too busy following up other job leads and trying to survive to pursue the issue further.
Years later, out of curiosity, I searched for “Lavelle Ward” on the web and came across his same over-rehearsed line of BS in the threaded comments of some real estate message board. Luckily, the real-life real estate developers who frequented the site were able to see him for the charlatan that he is and I delighted in seeing him publicly ridiculed on an online forum.
My own carelessness definitely played a part in me becoming the victim of fraud, but I can’t help but reserve a certain amount of hatred toward Lavelle Ward and parasites like him. I was already struggling to pay rent and feed myself when Lavelle Ward ripped me off, so I am glad to see that this site exists. Thanks to whoever put it together, and keep up the good work. Creatures like Lavelle Ward thrive on misinformation and the best way to combat them is to shed light on their misdeeds.
We knew that Marcus LaVelle Ward’s “Trail of Tears” online went back a long way and had often wondered about what professional designer had created the Coat of Arms logo for his factitious real estate firm, The Lavelle Organization. We are very happy you reached out to share your story and sorry that you were hurt and that’s it’s yet another in a long line of cases of misrepresentation by Mr. Ward. Hopefully our readers and researchers will learn from those who have been through personal turmoil, that this Lavelle Ward is not who he appears to be and you should do a 180 if you ever encounter him.. Lest you become a future story here.
*name has been changed to protect the victim
