Prince George's Fairy Tale Unravels For Woman at Center of Fraud Probe

Last summer, Joy Jenise Jackson and Kurt Fordham hosted 360 guests at their $800,000 wedding. Jackson faces allegations of defrauding homeowners. (Courtesy Of Chris Duncan)

A longtime friend of Jackson's, Earl Bannister Jr. defended her, saying she is guilty of nothing more than working hard and trying to help others.

"I know Joy's not like that. She will be vindicated," said Bannister, a Baltimore-based clothing designer who created Jackson's wedding gown and, earlier, her exotic dancing costumes. "Any money she got, she earned."

Chris Duncan, 25, a former Metropolitan employee from District Heights, said his boss started out with good intentions but got in over her head.

"She was an ex-stripper who became a millionaire," Duncan said. "She started overspending and tried to move money around, and it wasn't covering the spread."

Kevin Schwapp doesn't need much prodding to remember Jackson's tenure at his nightclub in Temple Hills.

With her long hair and shapely figure, Jackson was one of his most popular dancers, earning well over $1,500 a week in tips, said Schwapp, who owns the Legend Nightclub. He said Jackson danced under the name "Night Rider" from 1997 to 2003. One of her most memorable stunts involved riding in on a white stallion, a la Lady Godiva.

"She was very popular, very creative," he said. "She stood out."

It wasn't just the patrons who noticed Jackson's act. Kurt Fordham, a popular disc jockey in Prince George's clubs, liked her, too, and the two started dating.

Jackson eventually stopped dancing to focus on her career as a loan officer, moving from one mortgage firm to another. In September 2004, she teamed with McCall, 46, to open Metropolitan. They advertised on gospel and R&B radio stations and other African American media outlets, promising to help homeowners with cash-flow and credit problems.

Veronica Savoy was two months behind in mortgage payments on her Waldorf home when she contacted Metropolitan in summer 2006.

She said the firm promised to keep her home from going into foreclosure and to get her a mortgage with a lower interest rate. She signed on. Now the deed is no longer in her name, and $100,000 in equity is gone, she said.

"I guess that's where the equity in my home went," Savoy said after hearing about Jackson's big day. "It went to her wedding."