For some time now, we have been following the Jennifer McKinney bankruptcy trainwreck, in which Jennifer and her husband Israel McKinney were alleged to have falsified information and concealed assets. (In the world of forensic accounting, we call that fraud.) For those new to the site, you can read about the origins of the MckMama fraud, complete with solid proof of the lies.
Today a concerned citizen posted some information about the Cadillac Escalade Jennifer McKinney is now driving. Following a very suspicious car accident in October, MckMama began driving a 2005 Escalade. The citizen retrieved a CarFax report on the Escalade, which showed the vehicle being purchased in January 2012 and registered in Onalaska, WI. The report then showed the vehicle being sold in November 2012, which corresponds to Jennifer’s purchase of it.
Based on some Facebook postings by Jennifer in both January and November 2012, some believed that Jennifer’s father bought the vehicle in January 2012, and retitled it to her in November 2012, around the time that Jennifer’s and Israel’s bankruptcy case was concluding.
I have conducted some research, and I can tell you that Jennifer’s father did not own the vehicle. The Escalade was purchased in January 2012 by Jennifer’s friend Samantha. Jennifer then purchased the Escalade in November 2012. Jennifer paid cash for the Escalade.
Could any of this constitute bankruptcy fraud or insurance fraud? I don’t have any information indicating fraud at this point.
If you need (or want) to buy a new car while in bankruptcy, it is common for bankruptcy lawyers to advise clients to have friends or family members purchase the vehicles for them. The main problem with buying a car while in bankruptcy occurs when you need to finance the vehicle. You may need permission from the bankruptcy court. Since this vehicle was purchased with cash, the issue of incurring debt does not appear to exist.
How could insurance fraud occur? If the original “accident” was not really an accident, that could be insurance fraud. If the insurance company was paying for a replacement vehicle and was deceived about the fair market value of it, I suppose that might be insurance fraud. However, based on the limited information available about the accident, insurance claim, and vehicle purchase, I do not have any reason to suspect insurance fraud at this time.
Very interesting! Thanks for keeping up to date with Jennifer and her many schemes!
People need to stop assuming!! Good grief!
How could you research without a full VIN number. Have you talked to parties involved in the sale ?
Marylou – I can’t give you any details, but I do have verified information about this purchase.
But in the midst of bankruptcy should she have enough cash on hand to purchase any vehicle?
Cynthia – Unfortunately, yes, this happens. She wasn’t paying any of those bills for the year that her bankruptcy was open, so she could stockpile money for a purchase.
It truly gets to me that this woman seems to come out of everything unscathed. I hope the behind the scenes of her life are not as pleasant as she makes them out to be.
I guess this is not technically illegal, thanks, TC, again, but, it seems…fishy.
I should also add that based on the verified information I have, I do not believe that Samantha bought the vehicle for Jennifer. It appears that Samantha bought it for herself, and just happened to sell it to Jennifer later.
Tracey,
Does Jennifer own the Escalade in her own name?
Are there any liens on the car?
Is there any reason the creditors could not come after that car?
…Just like she stockpiled money to pay for the Becker Contract for Deed. She stopped paying all her bills at the Mound Lake House and put that money toward the Becker Contract for Deed house before the Mound Lake House was foreclosed on. After she hopped to the Becker Contract for Deed house, she realized she’d need to “Play Poor” and skipped out on that house to move into the Farm House, assuming her playing poor would convince the Court that she was, indeed, poor. It backfired.
I honestly think there’s so much people don’t know about these crooks and cons. They are professionals at this lifestyle. Each new crop of Jennifer Mckinney followers come to her with blinders on and eventually, they end up — one by one — at MWOP, here and Google. How on earth they last as long as they do is beyond me. All one has to do is Google Jennifer Mckinney, Israel Mckinney or MckMama, and it’s all right there in black and white.
Here’s what I want to know, Tracy: how is it that she and Israel are supposedly “back together” (she posed getting her rings back on Statigram/Instagram during her Dubai trip), yet the court records in Wisconsin show they’re still very much separated in the eyes of the law? Are there benefits to continuing that lie as well? Financially speaking? It seems the Mckinneys do NOTHING without calculation, and I’ve often wondered if the separation was yet another scheme to pull one over on the courts.
Great questions, Kinley.
Plus, now it “appears” she is running part of her own Xyngular business through Israel’s name.
She truly reminds me of that Leo Decaprio movie, “Catch Me If You Can”.
Yes Kinley, Jennifer McKinney clearly knows how to game the system. There are people who will show you how to stop paying on a house, and then stockpile cash toward a new place while still living in the old place and waiting for the bank to kick you out. I believe she indeed was “playing poor” with the farm house for purposes of the bankruptcy. I am so glad that Gene had her number and stopped that.
As for the separation, I’m not sure if that helps them or not. I tend to think that it would if Israel had a regular job. I believe he was under a court order to pay child support, and if he had a job, the support would have to be paid FIRST before any wages could be garnished. Since he appears to be whoring for Xyng rather than working a real job, I don’t think the separation will have any effect.
I still suspect that the separation was at least partially for purposes of the bankruptcy.
If the Escalade is in Jennifer’s name, then the fake separation could possibly keep Israel’s former employee from taking the Escalade to satisfy the $50,000+ judgment against Israel.
I”m not sure that they’re at risk of having the vehicle taken away. They need a vehicle to transport the children. And relatively speaking, this one isn’t worth a whole lot.
I wonder if they are staying separated for tax purposes. I also wonder if that’s why she’s moved her sales to Izzy’s name. I don’t know much about taxes but if they file separated, as single people, and they keep their income below a certain level will their tax burden be less than it would be if they were married filing jointly with the eleventybillion dollars in xyng income?
Not that these people pay taxes anyway. It’s like it’s just a game to them really.
There would be no tax advantage to staying separated. Maybe if they are using state programs for medical or other benefits, being “separated” may help. However, rightfully they’d be required to report that they are living together. *sigh* Such a myriad of options to sort through when dealing with scammers such as these.
Tracey, is Samantha Jennifer’s friend “Sami”?
Yes, C3, it is Sami R.
Tracy, I did some digging myself, and found that on Jennifers last trip, she spent almost exactly $1,000 for two days at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel and almost $700 for two days at Wilderness at the Smokies hotel. With those prices, she had no reservations and paid full price for deluxe rooms, plus extras such a the spa, several meals from ther hotel, nightclubs and arcade passes.
Interestingly, the address she used was her parents, not her own.
I have no idea about the vehicle situation, but I am certain she is evading (monetarily) by using her parents address instead of her own when purchasing large items such as these trips with her mastercard.
Concerned Citizen – Even though Jennifer owes money up the wazoo, there is nothing stopping her from spending her money as she wishes. The only thing that will stop her is garnishment. Her creditors need to take her to court, get judgments against her, and then garnish her Xyng earnings directly from the company (before it is paid to her). They also need to go directly to Jennifer’s bank with their judgments, so any money in her bank accounts can be swiped and given to them. Now that she’s out of bankruptcy, no one can tell her how to spend her money. That’s why it’s important for the creditors to take steps to get the money before it gets into her grubby man hands.
So Sami, who has gone through significant financial issues herself in the past year or two, went out in February of last year and bought a Cadillac Escalade for her own family.
1) Where would they have gotten the money for such a purchase, given their financial difficulties…didn’t they just lose a home?
2) If they were financed, again, how would they have obtained financing for such a purchase given that they just lost a home, or were about to lose a home.
3) Sami has always struck me as more sensible and down to earth. I can’t imagine she’d be the type of person to run out and purchase a luxury SUV.
Still smells fishy to me.
C3 – Well, the car is only worth about $12,000 to $15,000. So even though it’s an Escalade, I wouldn’t exactly call it luxury at this point. It is like any older luxury vehicle… probably still runs well but not worth a whole lot of money.
I do have more details about Sami’s purchase than I’m revealing here. Based on what I’ve seen, I don’t think that Sami was trying to help Jennifer scam. I could be wrong. But at this point, I just don’t see evidence of that, and so I’m not going to put any further details about Sami out there beyond the fact that she purchased the vehicle and later sold it to Jennifer.
I do admit that the fact that Jennifer McKinney is involved in the transaction highly increases the likelihood of something scammy going on. 🙂
LOL, yeah, the fact that Jen is involved raises suspicion. I don’t know, though Tracey. A 12k vehicle, when you’ve just lost your home, or nearly lost your home and have significant medical bills.
Plus, if Sami did have the cash to purchase the vehicle, why wouldn’t she have spent it on something newer, that would have cost less to maintain and operate? Something more feasible? There are many other full-size SUVs on the market that they could have purchased. Why an Escalade? Unless one has a taste for high end…which Sami has never struck me before as being that type of person.
Now Jennifer on the other hand…
Hey, if you say the transaction was honest, so be it. But I’m still wondering.
C3 – I’m not saying that the transaction is honest. Not at all. I am just saying that at this point I have no evidence that it was underhanded.
Understood. 😀
Tracey, it’s interesting to note that the Carfax report showed there was a lien or loan on the car when it was purchased early in 2012. That would indicate Sami borrowed money to purchase it. Your thoughts?
Carol – I would interpret it the same way.
My husband has suggested that someone create a website for the sole purpose of creditors finding the Mckinneys, their current address, etc. For example: wwwDOTJenniferandIsraelMckinneyCreditorInformationDOTcom.
It would list any publicly available information such as their TRUE whereabouts, a list of all of their creditors as shown on their public bankruptcy documents, along with any large purchases made public (eg. Escalade, Traveling Xyng Circus).
As a way of helping out the creditors who are being hoodwinked by their current evasions. They’re doing everything they can to hide behind various addresses, marital status’, etc., and they need help finding them so they can get back what’s rightfully theirs. Especially that poor employee of Israel’s who is owed $56K.
I would be curious to know if J purchased that vehicle and allowed Sami to drive it until the point that she felt comfortable enough legally to take full control over it. She bought that other car and gave it to her sister for her sister to do her bidding, it would not surprise me if she did the same with Sami.
Sorta sad that Sami is involved financially at all with her. I mean how could it work out that Sami was selling the exact vehicle Jen was looking for at the exact time she was looking ?
Just wanted to clear up a few things. I have not lost a house. Ever. I sold a house. I bought a different house. We bought the Escalade because we were out of town in Wausau (about 2.5 hours from home) and our Suburban crapped out on us. At the time, we didn’t have the full money to outright buy a replacement vehicle, so financing was all we could do (like a lot of other people). We needed a vehicle that had 8 seats. The only other vehicles that fit that description were over 20 grand and we didn’t want to finance that. After we sold our house in La Crosse we decided we wanted to buy another house. We didn’t want to keep paying a large monthly payment (between lien and insurance) on the truck, so we put it up for sale. I busted my butt working all summer while my husband worked (Why people insinuate he doesn’t work is beyond me. He had some health issues in 2010 that took him out of work for a few months. I worked as much as I could while pregnant and we made ends meet. Tight? Yes, but ends were met and bills were made good.) to save up for a downpayment on the new house and to buy a vehicle outright. We put the truck up for sale. Around that time, Jennifer told me she totaled her truck. I told her ours was for sale. She waited for the insurance people to pay for her truck and bought mine outright. That’s it. Nothing shady involved. I know Jennifer’s history could cause question, but none of that has anything to do with me. Thanks for listening. 🙂
oops…I forgot to mention..I agree..I’m not an Escalade type. I hated driving it, which is the other main reason we sold it 😉
But you have had a bankruptcy, right Sami?
Sami, that was very wise of you to get cash from Jennifer. You know her well.
“Why people insinuate he doesn’t work is beyond me.”
Gee, I wonder if it has something to do with the fact that you have used the internet to beg for money.
Let me just say this: Despite Sami’s poor judgment in associating with Jennifer McKinnney in any way (doing any business with her, selling her a car, even associating with her), this thread really is not about her personal finances. By and large, I believe this vehicle transaction was legit. A couple of the other details Sami has presented us regarding her life don’t add up when compared to the documents I have. But I don’t really care. This article isn’t about her, it was about setting the record straight on who really sold Jennifer that vehicle. Beyond that, I think we should leave Sami out of things.
Sami, I appreciate that you came and cleared things up. This part of what you said, “I know Jennifer’s history could cause question, but none of that has anything to do with me. Thanks for listening.” really stuck out to me. Now we know why the Lord tells us to be careful of the company we keep. Jennifer’s reputation has done nothing for you but drag you down as well.
It’s sad, really. No matter how good of a person you might be, because of your association with Jennifer, and past defending of her, and continued dealings with her, you will always be associated with Jennifer and her scamming, lying, thieving ways. Her reputation has tarnished yours.
Have you seen the copy of the Contract for Deed posted on MWOP? I would love to hear your thoughts. It appears that Jen had until 4/15 to come up with the full purchase price of the house. It also appears she has violated the contract by not paying her property taxes.
Yes, I’ve seen it. I am sure Jennifer thought (at the time she signed the land contract) that she’s have all her debts discharged in bankruptcy, and her big money from Xyngular would be enough to help her get a bank loan. There is no way she will get a mortgage.
I’m sure that the second JM realized she couldn’t get a loan to make good on the land contract, she decided not to pay the property taxes.
The smartest thing the Arndts could do is evict her TODAY for non-payment of the real estate taxes. Jennifer is already in default on the land contract for the unpaid taxes, so they don’t need to wait until April 15. They should get her out NOW before she can damage their property any further.
^^This comment gave me chills. Especially since – as you already know – the house caught fire on 3/24.