Benjamin W. Navarro (born 1962/1963) is an American billionaire businessman, the founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Sherman Financial Group, LLC, which owns Credit One Bank. Early life He is one of eight children of Frank Navarro, a college football coach who posed for the Norman Rockwell painting The Recruit. He was born in Williamstown, Massachusetts, when his father was football coach at Williams College. He grew up in Westerly and Chariho, Rhode Island. He lived in Princeton, New Jersey and graduated from Princeton High School, when his father was coaching the Princeton University football team. Navarro earned a bachelor's degree in finance from the University of Rhode Island. Career Navarro worked for Goldman Sachs for three years, before joining Citigroup in 1988, rising to vice president and co-head of mortgage sales and trading. He left Citigroup in 1997, and in 1998 founded Sherman Financial Group, a global diversified investment services company. In 2005, Sherman bought a small bank and renamed it Credit One Bank. Credit One Bank, based in Las Vegas, Nevada, is a technology and data-driven financial services company focused on distressed or otherwise subprime borrowers. Credit One is one of the top 10 largest Visa credit card issuers in the United States with over 12 million cardholders across the country. Despite Credit One's large portfolio, the company's reputation is mixed. In 2018, Credit One was named the "Philanthropic Business of the Year - Private" by Vegas Inc. for its philanthropic efforts in Affordable Housing & Homelessness, Employment Services, and Financial Education. However, in J.D. Power's credit card satisfaction survey Credit One ranked last among national card issues in 2021, a title the bank has held every year since joining the survey in 2017. Credit One faces exceptional criticism from the Better Business Bureau regarding its billing and collections practices, and often reports incorrect data to credit reporting agencies. Multiple industry reviewers have raised concerns of (potentially) predatory business practices, mainly focused on Credit One’s exorbitant fees and lack of transparency. In 2021, Navarro founded Beemok Hospitality Collection, a hospitality company consisting of hotel, restaurant, and entertainment properties throughout the Southeast. The collection originated in October 2021 with the acquisition of their flagship property, the Charleston Place - the largest hotel in Charleston at 434 rooms. Other notable properties in the collection include The Cooper, a 225-room luxury hotel being developed along downtown Charleston’s waterfront; The Riviera