Rebuilding America, LLC – Complaint Filed by SEC Against Owner | Goodman & Nekvasil P.A. May Recover Investor Losses
ACCORDING TO THE SEC:
The SEC brings this action against George Slowinski for perpetrating an offering fraud scheme involving real estate in Chicago. Slowinski was a principal and owner of Rebuilding America, LLC (“Rebuilding America”), an issuer of securities which, between September 2013 and June 2014, raised more than $20 million from more than 600 investors.
Slowinski and Rebuilding America lured investors by promising to pay 38% returns in only two years. They told investors Rebuilding America would generate such generous returns through the profits of a successful real estate development program. Specifically, Slowinski and Rebuilding America told investors Rebuilding America would pool investor proceeds to acquire, refurbish, and sell for profit residential real estate primarily located on the South Side of Chicago.
While touting Rebuilding America’s profitability, Slowinski hid from investors that between 34% and 42% of every invested dollar would be diverted, upfront, to Slowinski and his partners in the form of undisclosed fees and commissions. Slowinski also concealed that, as a result of the hidden fees, Rebuilding America would have significantly less funds to devote to its real estate projects and would need to achieve unrealistic and outsized margins in an unreasonably short timeframe in order to pay investors the promised returns.
To solicit investments, Slowinski presented himself as a real estate expert with a successful track record of building and refurbishing residential properties. However, Slowinski quickly realized that Rebuilding America’s business model was untenable, and that Rebuilding America would not be able to generate the margins or complete the volume of development projects needed to repay investors. Nevertheless, Slowinski continued to solicit investors, accept the hidden fees, and use investor moneys to fund his real estate and construction businesses.
Slowinski compounded his fraud by diverting more than $2.8 million of investor funds, which had been earmarked for construction on specific Rebuilding America projects, to improperly pay for his companies’ payroll, overhead, and cost overruns on other projects.
As a result of the hidden fees and Rebuilding America’s inability to make even modest profits from its real estate projects, Rebuilding America could not pay investors the promised returns. Instead, Rebuilding America simply paid investors one year’s worth of interest payments. But these first year payments were merely Ponzi-style returns which, unbeknownst to investors, came from investor principal as opposed to the profits from any real estate projects.
By 2017, Rebuilding America had collapsed. Its real estate projects had failed, the State of Illinois revoked Rebuilding America’s corporate status, and investors received less than half the promised interest payments and none of their principal investment. In total, the investors lost more than $17 million.
This lawsuit seeks to hold Slowinski responsible for his role in the Rebuilding America fraud.
Investors in Rebuilding America, LLC May Recover their Losses with Goodman & Nekvasil, P.A.
If you invested in Rebuilding America, 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 Rebuilding America, 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.
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