Greed Exposed

Real schemes from the public record, told so you can recognize the pitch before it reaches you.

This Week's Crook

• This Week's CrookThe “Guaranteed” 10 Percent Every Three MonthsA real estate “bridge loan,” sold by more than 100 commissioned “financial consultants,” paid for with people's IRAs. It was a Ponzi scheme from the first deposit.

Episodes

• Episode · GPB Capital HoldingsThe 8 Percent PromiseCar dealerships, garbage trucks and a monthly check. About 17,000 investors bought private funds that promised 8 percent a year. Some of those checks came out of their own money.
• Episode · Woodbridge Group of CompaniesFirst Position“First position commercial mortgages.” Safe, short, secured. More than 8,400 people bought them. The borrowers were the owner's own shell companies.
• Episode · GWG Holdings L BondsBetting on DeathBonds backed by other people's life insurance, paying up to 8.5 percent, sold by thousands of advisers. $1.6 billion was outstanding when the company went bankrupt.
• Fictional EpisodeThe Other FundsFor twenty years, a trusted family adviser moved his friends' money into “other funds.” The funds never existed.
• Fictional EpisodeThe HelperHe paid the bills, hired the caretaker, picked up the mail. The SEC says he also took $9.8 million from his 81-year-old client.
• Fictional EpisodeThe End of the DayHe bought the stock in one big account and decided at closing time who got it. The winners went to his family. The losers went to his clients.
• Fictional EpisodeThe Cold CallHe promised small-business owners he'd make them lots of money. He traded their accounts without asking, and the costs ate them alive.
• Fictional EpisodeSelling Insurance on the MarketTwo couples, one about to retire, were put into selling put options on stock indexes. They lost about $760,000. He made $279,000 in commissions.

Troubled Products

• Troubled ProductInPoint Commercial Real Estate IncomeA non-traded REIT that makes real estate loans. Its value per share is down by more than a third from its 2020 price, its monthly payout was just cut by three-quarters, and buybacks are suspended.
• Troubled ProductSilver Star Properties REIT (Formerly Hartman XX)Sold at $10 a share with 9.5 percent in commissions and fees. In 2026 it filed for bankruptcy, warned that shareholders could be wiped out, and the SEC revoked its registration.
• Troubled ProductStratCap Digital Infrastructure REITA cell tower and data center REIT sold through brokers. In April 2026 it stopped paying distributions, ended its offering, and shut the exit for everyone except the dead and disabled.
• Troubled ProductBlue Owl Capital Corporation IIA non-traded private-lending fund sold with up to 5 percent upfront. In 2026 it stopped its regular buyback offers and began winding down, returning money on its own schedule.
• Troubled ProductApollo Debt Solutions BDC: The Line at the ExitInvestors asked to cash out about 16.8 percent of the fund's shares in one quarter. The fund honored 5 percent.