I have been in contact with an investor from Italy who has agreed to extend a loan for my business. The terms for the loan are: 3% interest to be paid every 12 months. Option to pay off in 5 years. Total amount to be paid at the end of 10 year term. This investor recieved my business plan from The 504bank website and has been contacting me by telephone 2-3 times a week. Terms have been agreed to and the time has come to set a date to go to Italy and meet face to face. My questions below are for investors. The first question is one of the most important.

My questions are(FOR ACREDITED INVESTORS ONLY):
1. As an investor what would you think if I asked you to come to the U.S. to meet? (I've already decided to take the trip but this needed to be asked for other reasons)

2. If this is a scam what could the scam be?

3. What channels could I use to check this person out further?

4. As the investor how would you distribute the funds in this type of Investment/Loan?

5. What is the best bank system to use for this type of transaction?

6. What international business laws should I be fimilar with for this transaction?(besides the rules for a LLC)

7. What type of advisor should we seek?

8. Will a bank have info on this type of transaction, if so what section?

We are a LLC.
The trip will be scheduled for January 2007 so we have time to perfect everything. My business partner and I are giving a Powerpoint Presentation and are very confident in our presentation. Answers to these questions will greatly help us achieve our goal for this trip and any additional advice is appreciated.

Mike63

You use two terms interchangeably that you had better be clear on. You mention investor, and loan. An investor "usually" invests in a business with the idea of getting their investment and their return down the road when the business is a success. A loan is from a lender that's looking for a locked in return up front and has a scheduled payback. That's not to say that there aren't investors who loan, but they are still going to want a stake in your business. As an investor, why would you settle for a 3% return when you can buy into the DOW or S&P and get closer to 12-15%. You have to answer this in your own mind.

I wouldn't meet with anyone in a foreign country about money anywhere but a public place, unless it's a legitimate banking operation.

Make sure you don't pay ANY fees up-front...any fees should be deducted from the proceeds of the loan.

You can hire a P.I. to check them out.

Distributions of funds can be structured anyway the two of you agree on...either lump-sum or progress payments.

Any commercial bank can handle your transactions, HOWEVER, any account they say they need access to I wouldn't keep more than $100 in.

You shouldn't be familiar with any international business laws...you should have an international lawyer who is. If anything goes wrong in international business you have very little recourse.

If I were the guy with the money and I didn't want to travel...I'd expect the person wanting the money to do the travelling.
Hope this helps
Denny

Thankx for the info Denny.

After continued searches on this investor I found that it is a scam. These are some of the names that these scam artist use: Albinali & Sons, Devcom Partners and Financial Credit. This one claimed that he was from Italy and actually made serveral overseas calls to me. Here is a site to get details on how these scams work:
http://pentucky.tripod.com/

Mike63