Ronda Behrens, 73, rode the Northshore real estate wave caused by Hurricane Katrina to great success in the mid-2000s. She founded her own company, partnering with another established agent, bought an office building in downtown Covington, and was poised for success into retirement until she says a kind gesture dragged her into a downward spiral, taking several of her friends and family with her. Trips to the hair salon brought both fresh hair and friendship to Behrens, leading her to loan her hairdresser’s daughter, Melissa Ficarra Kagel, $18,000 in 2006 to help fund a lawsuit over the sale of a Ficarra family business, Seago’s Starting Systems & Services, LLC. “I’ve been wealthy and I've been broke and I've been wealthy again. And now, I'm broke,” Behrens said. A handwritten IOU, the first of many Behrens says she witnessed Kagel sign, still sits tucked in a banker’s file folder that Behrens has kept over the years. She turned that file over to the police last year when she realized she would never get her money back from Kagel. Now Behrens and her friends and family who were also dragged into the deal are hoping federal authorities will step in to take over the investigation and prosecution of Kagel, who was charged with two counts of exploitation of the informed in St Tammany Parish in March.