Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in California

To be completely honest with you, you have been duped. Nobody should ever loan money without documenting the exact terms of the loan in advance, and obtaining security for the loan prior to actually giving the money. You do not see banks making loans to people, and then after the fact asking for promissory notes, security documents and other necessary requirements - those are all gathered before the loan is made. Once you have given the borrower the money, you have exactly zero leverage to get her to give you collateral for the loan.

I suspect, however, you already understand this, and that you are trying to salvage what you can. What you need to do is file suit to collect on an oral agreement. The statute of limitations is very short on something like this, so you need to take action immediately. Once you (if you can) obtain a judgment, then you have to attempt to collect it from her. If you mean by "she has ~$2M in loans," that she is owed ~$2M, then you can go after those loans as assets to recover some of what you are owed. You may also be able to register the California judgment with foreign countries, and try to collect in her country or where she has properties. You will have to retain an attorney who is well versed in international law, as I have no idea if you can collect a California judgment in China or other countries. Retain someone immediately to begin the process of filing suit, or you may lose your right to go after her forever.

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Sue her and do it now! Fortunately you have a written note it does not have to be notarized to be valid. The time to bring an action on a written contract is 4 years. Once you get a judgment collecting it will be difficult but you need to sue her while you can still find her.

Do not wait one more minute if you want to stand any chance of recovering your money.

In addition to suing her on the note you could probably add some counts for fraud.

This is something we can help you with if you are interested for a fee.

If not good luck and I hope this helped.