Equitybuild, Inc., Equitybuild Finance, LLC, Jerome H. Cohen, and Shaun D. Cohen Charged by SEC – Goodman & Nekvasil P.A. May Recover Investor Losses
Securities and Exchange Commission Charges Equitybuild, Inc., Equitybuild Finance, LLC, Jerome H. Cohen, and Shaun D. Cohen
The SEC brings this action to halt an ongoing Ponzi scheme. According to the complaint, since at least 2010, Defendants Jerome and Shaun Cohen, through their companies, Defendants Equitybuild, Inc. and Equitybuild Finance, LLC, have raised at least $135 million from more than 900 investors. According to the complaint, defendants raised these funds by falsely promising investors safe investments, secured by income producing real estate, that generated returns of 12% to 20%. According to the complaint, most of the real estate promoted to investors were residential properties in underdeveloped areas on the South Side of Chicago.
The SEC’s complaint alleges that since 2010, the defendants have sold promissory notes to at least 900 investors throughout the country. The defendants raised these funds by falsely promising safe investments fully secured by income-producing real estate. According to the SEC’s complaint, the defendants took 15-30% of investors’ funds as undisclosed fees, hiding the fees by reporting inflated acquisition costs. The complaint also alleges that, contrary to defendants’ representations, the real estate did not earn enough to pay the double-digit returns promised to investors. As a result, according to the complaint, the defendants could only pay earlier investors by raising funds from unwitting new investors.
According to the SEC’s complaint, the defendants recently admitted in a video recording to earlier investors that the companies are in financial distress, can no longer afford to make payments to investors, and are cutting staff to a “skeleton crew.” Despite these disclosures, the defendants have continued to solicit new investors for various real estate funds, again offering double-digit returns but failing to disclose the companies’ dire financial condition.
Investors in Equitybuild, Inc. and/or Equitybuild Finance, LLC May Recover their Losses with Goodman & Nekvasil, P.A.
If you invested in Equitybuild, Inc. and/or Equitybuild Finance, LLC, Goodman & Nekvasil, P.A. may help you. Goodman & Nekvasil, P.A., a Clearwater, Florida, law firm with a national practice representing victimized investors, has recovered more than $180 million dollars on behalf of victimized investors.
All our cases are handled on a purely contingency fee basis by Kalju Nekvasil, Esq., formerly regional counsel with the NASD, now known as FINRA. Kalju Nekvasil, Esq. has practiced in this area of the law for more than 35 years.
There is no charge for an evaluation of your case. Further, we handle our cases on a contingency fee basis. This means that unless we recover money for you, we charge no attorney’s fee. Unless you recover any money, you pay us nothing, not even the costs and expenses which the firm will advance on your behalf.
If you incurred investment losses with Equitybuild, Inc. and/or Equitybuild Finance, LLC and would like your case evaluated by a securities attorney (again, there is no charge for an evaluation and all cases are handled on a purely contingency fee basis), please contact us.