iFLIP Chicago owner has been accused in other lawsuits filed of running a Ponzi scheme using real estate contracts to transfer his debt to investors.
A lawsuit is accusing the New York-based lender behind the real estate coaching company iFLIP Chicago of taking advantage of inexperienced Black investors in order to seize land near the expected future home of the Obama Presidential Center on the South Side of Chicago.
However, according to the lawsuit, once the investors got the loans, they were hit by hefty default interest fees even after making their payments on time. According to Tatianna Barnett, a Chicago realtor, several investors went into foreclosure and are now in limbo.
“[The investors’] impression was that Mr. Bey was the bad guy who took their money and they were in a deal with him and he took advantage of them. The reality is that the contracts do not allow for this. They didn’t sign anything that allowed for their money to be used for someone else.”
Loftus continued, “This is a big venture firm in New York taking advantage of the little guys in Chicago. I think from the perspective of the folks in New York, if you have this group of African Americans doing business on the South Side of Chicago, that’s an easy group to take some risks with.”
According to Loftus, Bey is potentially just as much of a victim as his clients.
“The investors] go to Mr. Bey and they talk to each other and they’re like, ‘Oh geez, we must be stuck because the big guys in New York, the money men in New York all say that we agreed to this’. It’s not true,” Loftus said. “No one materially benefits from this whole fiasco besides the lender.”
Loftus continued, “They were targeted based on who they are and where they come from, that this was someone that that we could get away with this a while longer.
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Source: Black Enterprise
