Seeking Victim Information in Slip-and-Fall Lawsuit Ponzi Scheme Investigation
Seeking Victim Information in Slip-and-Fall Lawsuit Ponzi Scheme Investigation
The FBI is seeking potential victims of an alleged Ponzi-style investment fraud scheme conducted by a small group of individuals operating in Nevada, Utah, and California from 2017 to March 2022. Members of this scheme sold “settlement contracts,” “lawsuit settlement contracts,” “settlement funding contracts,” or similar contracts related to third-party slip-and-fall lawsuits.
Defining characteristics of this scheme are as follows:
- Contracts were often sold in increments of $80,000 or $100,000
- Investors were promised a return of 10-13% in 90 days
- Earlier contracts were four to five pages long and often contained a reference to a slip-and-fall incident, the name of the slip-and-fall victim’s attorney, a settlement monetary award, a non-disclosure agreement, a purchase agreement, and an investor agreement; investors were asked to reinvest their original principal into a new contract after the initial 90 days
- More recent contracts were more than 100 pages and changed to a “membership,” where 90-day renewals were not required
- Salespeople described the contracts as scarce and led buyers to believe they may not be able to immediately invest
- Investors were asked to verbally commit to a purchase between Thursday and Sunday and were required to wire money to the organization the following Monday or Tuesday
- Investors were asked to wire money to a company IOLTA (interest on lawyers’ trust account)
- Investors were asked to set up an LLC to collect their return
- Investors were introduced to the scheme by persons who shared the same faith, hobbies, gym memberships, etc.
If you believe you were a victim of this scheme, please fill out the below questionnaire.
If you know of someone else who may have been affected, please encourage them to complete the form themselves.
Your responses are voluntary but may be useful in the federal investigation and to identify potential victims. It may be that you have already given this information to an FBI agent, but please provide it again on this questionnaire. Based on the responses provided, you may be contacted by the FBI.
For more information, visit fbi.gov/LVPonziScheme.
