| November-December 2003 | Issue 197 |
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Winning Against the Wolford Group |
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| By Danny Wagener, Iowa CCI, Des Moines, Iowa Des Moines Citizens for Community Improvement celebrated a major victory against the Wolford Group this year leading up to a lawsuit filed by the Attorney General that resulted in the company filing for bankruptcy. The campaign was effective in part because the organization combined direct action with the use of friendly and hostile targets. It was also successful because it combined good media strategy with the testimonies of more then 50 Wolford Group customers to get its message out. Some of the allies that we used during the fight included the Attorney General’s Office, the Better Business Bureau (BBB), David Winterfeld (owner of the mortgage broker used by Wolford), and the Polk County Attorney. We began the campaign by targeting the Wolford Group in the early part of the year by inviting representatives from the company to a public meeting. When they didn’t show up and 70 members of the community did, an action was a fairly obvious next step. Approximately 30 of our members paid a visit to owner Rod Wolford II’s house where they educated Wolford’s neighbors on his misleading practices. Another step was to have the company's membership in the Better Business Bureau revoked. Our leaders did this by distributing fliers at the BBB’s Scam Jam at the Polk County Convention Center. A month later, the BBB formally revoked Wolford’s membership for noncompliance with membership standards. Another ally in the fight was the owner of Metropolitan Mortgage, David Winterfeld, the mortgage broker to whom Wolford was sending its customers to obtain financing. We set up a meeting for Winterfield to tell the Attorney General’s Office and the Iowa Finance Bureau about Wolford’s numerous unethical business practices. One of the strongest allies in the fight against the Wolford Group turned out to be the Attorney General’s office. In August, the office filed a consumer fraud lawsuit against the Wolford Group, Inc., the Wolford Corporation, Rod Wolford Sr., and Rod Wolford II. Eventually the company was forced to file for bankruptcy. We are currently working closely with Fannie Mae, local lenders, and the Attorney General’s Office to see that its members get their properties returned, or are able to stay in the house they “bought” from Wolford. Another reason this campaign was successful was our effective use of the media. We built a good relationship with a reporter who wrote more than a dozen quality articles on the issue for the Des Moines Register. The coverage started in February at a public meeting and lasted throughout the campaign. We could also never overestimate the more than 50 one-on- one interviews with Wolford Group customers. They often led to victims becoming CCI members and it allowed us to record their story. These stories were used to draft approximately 40 grievance/demand letters that were sent to Wolford, the Attorney General, the County Attorney, and the media. The copies sent to the Attorney General’s Office served as formal complaints and played a key role in their ability to file a consumer fraud lawsuit against Wolford. Considering that we never got our primary target, representatives of the Wolford Group to the table to negotiate, I think it was a very innovative and successful campaign. Wolford closed the door in our face early on, but we kept on the Attorney General’s Office and the Better Business Bureau to take action against Wolford and eventually both entities did. |
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Disclosure
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