Finney Law Firm together with the firm of Markovits, Stock and DeMarco have initiated a major class action, fraud and federal racketeering law suit against Build Realty, Greenleaf Funding, Edgar Construction, First Title Agency, Inc. and Smith-Graham & Co., along with individuals Gary Bailey, George Triantifilou, Stephen King and a host of other co-conspirators.
Today, reporter Paula Christian has posted a “deep dive” story on the scheme on WCPO.Com and we expect the video story will air this evening.
The case alleges that Build Realty solicits innocent and unsophisticated home “flippers” through a variety of means, including new investor seminars, and induces them to enter into a costly and fraudulent investment scheme. As set forth in the Complaint, the scheme defrauds those investors out of their initial $10,000 down payment in a variety of ways, and then sinks them deeper with 15% interest rates and a trust structure that allows Build to just “take away” their property with no advance notice to the investor and no judicial proceeding.
Among the methods of fraud include photo-shopping bank statements and checks, charging thousands of dollars in phantom fees at closing, and misleading investors with knowingly suppressed renovation estimates and inflated “after repair value” estimates of the property’s worth.
We estimate the number of victims of the fraud to exceed 600 at present. To our knowledge, the fraudulent conduct continues to this day.
The case is presently before Federal District Court Judge Michael R. Barrett and is captioned Compound Property Management, LLC, el al. v. Build Realty d/b/a Greenleaf Funding, et al. Federal District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, Case No. 1:19-CV-00133.
You may read the story here.
You may read the entire federal law suit here.
