Sunrise: What is Sunrise Financial?

"These people aren't easy to get ahold of."

"They don't respond to anybody."

Havre Realtor Sheila Forshee said the former, City Council chairman Andrew Brekke the latter. The sentiment was echoed several times as this series of articles on Sunrise Financial Group LLC was being written.

Sunrise Financial Group is a company that buys tax liens at annual tax lien sales across Montana. They've bought 80 tax liens in Hill County in the last four years - 20 of those properties became the company's. The properties Sunrise owns in Havre are abandoned and disheveled. And despite interest from locals such as Shaylee Lewis, Marc Whitacre and Greg Wood, there's no indication Sunrise has seriously considered selling any of its properties.

One of the recurring themes among people who know of or have tried to get in touch with someone from Sunrise is the company is evasive.

The people connected to Sunrise ignore those who want to talk to them. They don't respond to emails, voice messages and certainly don't talk to reporters.

So just what is Sunrise?

Havre Daily News called former owners of properties bought by Sunrise through tax lien sales, to talk to them and get a copy of the supposedly intimidating notices Sunrise sends owners after putting a lien on their homes.

Most former owners didn't answer or call back. One, in particular, had a legitimate reason for not talking - she had died. The few who answered refused to talk about their experience with the company that acquired their property.

The encounter - written about in parts 1 and 2 of this series - between a representative of Sunrise and Havre resident Roger Heil, who lives next door to one of Sunrise's abandoned houses, doesn't shed much light on the company. Although Heil has talked to a representative of Sunrise, he said he doesn't know whom he spoke to or remember what the man looked like.

Heil said a man drove on the property about two years ago and said, "I bought this place."

Heil said he told the new owner that he had started taking care of the premises, keeping it trim enough to keep the snakes and rabbits out, and the man said, "We'll make it right with you."

That was the extent of their conversation.

As for Shaylee Lewis - the Havreite who said she had a short talk with a man associated with Sunrise who did not seem happy she had called him - she said the man she spoke to was named Brion Lindseth.

Neither Heil's nor Lewis' encounters answer why Sunrise buys properties and leaves them to atrophy.

Some people are shocked at how quickly Sunrise picks up the delinquent liens.

Havre Realtor Kim Cripps suggested Sunrise may have "someone in every courthouse watching."

When asked if she was suggesting Sunrise had people in the Hill County Courthouse alerting company managers about people who are falling behind on their property taxes, she said she didn't know if that's what was happening.

In Part 1, an interview with Hill Country Treasurer Sandy Brown described the legal process of tax lien buying by which Sunrise acquires properties.

Brown said anyone can obtain a list of properties on which back taxes are owed. Property tax and lien information is public.

An employee of the Cascade County Clerk and Recorder's Office also commented on how quickly Sunrise jumped on properties with back taxes owed.

"Sunrise picks them up" - she said, then paused and snapped her fingers before adding, "just like that, and nobody has a chance."

The Cascade County Courthouse worker was surprised to find out Sunrise's Great Falls office was a stone's throw down the street.

The company is just as mysterious to those within walking distance as it is to Havrerites.

Here is what is known about Sunrise:

Two names associated with Sunrise consistently pop up. One is Jon Kudrna. The other is Brion Lindseth. Kudrna and Lindseth go back and forth sharing affiant roles, or signing the county paperwork whenever the company buys a lien. Lindseth's name is the only name of a person that appears on the incorporation and annual report papers from the Secretary of State's Office. But that doesn't necessarily make Lindseth the owner, an official from the secretary's office said.

Sunrise's 2015 annual report reveals that the company is managed by another company, named, The Parent Company LLC.

Communications Director for the Montana Secretary of State Blair Fjeseth said it is "very common" for an LLC, a limited liability company, to manage another LLC.

Former KRTV reporter Marnee Banks reported on Sunrise about three years ago. In her report, Banks links Sunrise to four other related LLCs: Montana Land Project, a slightly differently named Montana Land Protection, Investment Properties Finance Group and Sunset Asset Management.

State Secretary public documents show the following relationship between the companies: Sunrise Financial Group is managed by The Parent Company; The Parent Company is managed by Sunset Asset Management; and Sunset Asset Management is managed by Sunrise Financial Group.

In Cascade County, Sunrise operates under the names Sunrise Financial and Montana Land Protection. Public records show Montana Land Protection is managed by Investment Property Managers; Investment Property Managers is managed by The Parent Company, the same LLC that manages Sunrise.

Documents indicate all the aforementioned companies are the same company that is managed or owned by the same person or people. While it's typical for LLCs to be owned by other LLCs, Fjeseth said, "We don't see too many LLC's that create these circles of ownership."

This circular management, or ownership, alludes to an attempt at concealment.

Before driving to Sunrise's listed address 202 2nd Ave. S. in Great Falls, in hopes of getting a morsel of conversation with anyone from Sunrise, a Havre Daily News reporter tracked both men at the Great Falls law firm Jardine Stephenson Blewett & Weaver PC and called Kudrna and Lindseth. Neither answered or responded to any of the voice messages.

One call went through as Kudrna got out of a meeting. The receptionist said, "Oh, he just got out of a meeting. Let me see if I can get him on the phone."

That was as close as the reporter got to talking to Kudrna.

"Sir," - the woman on the other line added - "he said he will not talk to you."

Neither Kudrna nor Lindseth had returned calls or emails.

Havre Daily News sent Kudrna and Lindseth each an email asking questions about details for this series of articles. It was a final attempt to get insight into Sunrise's plans for the properties in Havre.

A Havre Daily News reporter drove to the 202 2nd Ave. S. building in Great Falls to see who, if anyone, was there.

Businesses are operating in the building: Machinery Row Underground Lounge, Farm Bureau Financial Services, Connect Church and a company called Family Connections. Family Connections is in Suite 201, which Sunrise listed as an office in their paperwork in 2011 and prior years. It's the same address reporter Marnee Banks and Havreite Greg Wood visited years ago.

The receptionist, a woman named Joy, told a Havre Daily News reporter she had been with Family Connections for a year and a half, and added that Family Connections had been in suite 201 for five years.

One thing is certain: Sunrise is in the 202 2nd Ave. S. building, in suite 101, which is listed in more recent records. On the glass of the doorway to Suite 101 is the name "Investment Property Managers." Investment Property Managers is not listed on the sign outside which lists the other entities in the building.

Havre Daily News found a young lady, who said she was named Casey, sitting at a large, wooden desk near the door. She would not confirm the spelling of her name or provide her last name. Aside from Casey, no other person was in sight. No sound came out of any of the office rooms, which looked to spread out farther into the office.

Casey verified Havre Daily News was at the right place: 202 2nd Ave. S., Suite 101. After learning why Havre Daily News was there - "We'd like to talk to someone from Sunrise about the properties they own in Havre and why they neglect them," she was told - Casey said the best she could do was take a message. After she was asked how likely Havre Daily was to get a call back, she said, "not very."

She ended the interview with: "They told me not to talk to you."