No Way, José Ep 9 Anthony Christopher Pt 2: The $8,000 Property That Wasn't For Sale

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In Part Two of our five-part investigation into Anthony Christopher Rocko, we move several years forward from Labor of Love Charities in Oklahoma.

And once again, the story involves money, real estate, and questions about credibility.

This time, however, we are not relying on a newspaper account.

We are going directly to an Arkansas lawsuit.

On March 9, 2018, Jennifer Powers filed a civil lawsuit in the Circuit Court of Washington County, Arkansas, naming Anthony Christopher, also known as Anthony Rocko, as a defendant.

The case number is 72CV-18-644-2.

Powers brought the case individually and as a member of Christopher-Powers Properties, LLC.

The allegations contained in that complaint raise serious questions about Anthony Christopher Rocko’s business dealings and, more importantly for this series, about what kind of source vetting should have taken place before PRETEND relied on him in Who’s Afraid of LaDonna Humphrey?

A business partnership begins

According to the complaint, Jennifer Powers met Anthony through mutual friends while he was attending graduate school at the University of Arkansas.

She alleged that Anthony became a close confidant while she was going through a divorce and later convinced her to invest money from that divorce into a business venture with him.

Together, they formed Christopher-Powers Properties, LLC.

Powers alleged that each of them owned 50 percent of the company and that they agreed to contribute equally to expenses and share income equally.

The original plan was straightforward:

Purchase older properties.

Renovate them.

Rent them.

Generate passive income.

But according to Powers, the financial reality did not match what she had been told.

The money starts raising questions

Powers alleged that Anthony repeatedly asked her for money during renovations and represented that he was contributing an equal amount.

She says she trusted him and believed that whenever she contributed funds, Anthony was putting in his 50 percent as well.

According to the complaint, Anthony handled the company’s finances while Powers handled cleaning and preparing the property after renters left.

Then came a proposed deal in Cave Springs, Arkansas.

The $8,000 Cave Springs transaction

According to the complaint, Anthony took Powers to a property in Cave Springs in March 2017 and allegedly told her that arrangements had been made to purchase it.

The plan, according to Powers, was to build houses there and expand their rental business.

Anthony allegedly told her that each of them needed to contribute $8,000 toward the purchase.

Powers says she gave him the $8,000.

Then she checked on the property herself.

What she alleges she discovered became one of the central claims in the lawsuit:

The property had not been purchased.

She further alleged that the property was not even for sale and that the owners had never discussed selling it to Anthony Christopher.

That allegation forms an important part of this episode because it was not buried in an online argument or anonymous accusation.

It appeared in a filed civil complaint.

Questions about the company records

According to Powers, discovering what had happened with the Cave Springs property prompted her to demand more information about Christopher-Powers Properties.

She alleged that she was told there were no tax returns and that rental income had not been deposited into the LLC’s bank account.

She demanded an accounting.

The complaint then raises another significant allegation.

Powers says she received documents purporting to be minutes from LLC meetings.

According to her complaint, those documents claimed she had attended meetings that she says never occurred.

She also alleged that the purported minutes reflected a transfer of 80 percent of her ownership interest in the company to Anthony Christopher.

Her response in the complaint was direct:

“That is not true.”

What the bank records allegedly showed

Powers says she later obtained records from Arvest Bank concerning the LLC.

According to the complaint, those records did not show Anthony contributing anywhere near his alleged half of the company’s costs and expenses.

She further alleged that the records did not show rental income being deposited into the LLC’s account even though the property had allegedly been rented many times.

Powers also alleged that Anthony refused to provide complete financial information and, upon information and belief, had commingled LLC funds with his personal account.

The causes of action

Jennifer Powers brought six counts in the lawsuit:

Count I: Breach of Fiduciary Duty Owed to Company

Count II: Breach of Duty Owed to Plaintiff

Count III: Breach of Contract

Count IV: Tort of Deceit

Count V: Unjust Enrichment

Count VI: Punitive Damages

Count IV is especially important to this episode.

Under “Tort of Deceit,” Powers alleged that Anthony made false representations to her.

She specifically pointed to the Cave Springs property and alleged that Anthony accepted her $8,000 for half of a property purchase that he “never bought or had a contract to purchase,” despite allegedly telling her that an agreement to buy the property existed.

Powers further alleged that Anthony intended for her to rely on those representations, that she did rely on them, and that she suffered financial harm as a result.

Those are allegations contained in the lawsuit.

They are not findings by this show.

And that distinction matters.

A verified complaint

The complaint also contains a verification.

Jennifer Powers appeared before a notary and swore that the facts and matters contained in the complaint were “true and correct as Affiant verily believes.”

Her signature appears on the document.

So does the notary’s signature, seal, and date.

Again, that does not by itself prove every allegation in the complaint.

But it does establish that these were formal allegations placed into the court record under verification.

Why this matters to PRETEND

PRETEND asked its audience to listen to Anthony Christopher Rocko while he discussed the credibility and conduct of LaDonna Humphrey.

That makes his own credibility relevant.

The question is not whether the existence of one lawsuit automatically proves that every statement Anthony has ever made is false.

It does not.

The question is whether an investigative podcast built around questions of honesty and credibility should have examined this documented history before presenting Anthony as a source.

There was a verified complaint in the Washington County court record alleging problems involving money, business finances, real estate representations, ownership interests, purported meeting minutes, and an $8,000 payment connected to property that Powers alleged was never purchased and was not even for sale.

One of the causes of action was literally titled:

Tort of Deceit.

That record existed.

So the question becomes:

Did Javier Leiva know about it?

And if not:

Why not?

The source deserves scrutiny too

This five-part series is applying the same standard PRETEND encouraged its audience to apply to everyone else.

Look at the documents.

Check the chronology.

Separate allegations from proven facts.

Compare what people say with what the record shows.

And do not exempt a source from scrutiny simply because that source supports your story.

Anthony Christopher Rocko wanted to talk publicly about the credibility of other people.

That makes it reasonable to examine his credibility too.

In Part Two, the receipts come directly from an Arkansas court file.

And we still have three parts to go.