Episode · Woodbridge Group of Companies

First Position

“First position commercial mortgages.” Safe, short, secured. More than 8,400 people bought them. The borrowers were the owner's own shell companies.

The Angry Attorney · October 23, 2026

Cold Open

You heard it on the radio. Maybe at a free retirement seminar, or a class at a local university. A short-term loan, secured by real estate, first in line if anything goes wrong. Five to 8 percent a year. Safer than the stock market, they said. More than 8,400 people believed it. I'm the Angry Attorney. This is Greed Exposed.

The Product

The company was the Woodbridge Group of Companies. Its main product was called a First Position Commercial Mortgage note, a 12-to-18-month note paying 5 to 8 percent. Woodbridge said investors' money was lent to outside borrowers who paid it 11 to 15 percent, and the notes were secured by first-position mortgages on real estate. For bigger investors, there were funds paying 6 to 10 percent a year. Woodbridge called the notes simple, safer, and more secured.

Who Sold It

Woodbridge built a sales machine. The SEC says it paid $64.5 million in commissions to sales agents, many of them not registered to sell securities at all. They pitched it as low risk and conservative. Agents allegedly marketed it through seminars, newspaper ads, radio and TV. One agent hosted his own radio program. Agents bought the notes at a 9 percent “wholesale” rate and sold them to you at 5 to 8. The difference was their pay. And they earned more when you rolled over.

The Trick

Here's what was really going on. The SEC says most of those outside borrowers were companies controlled by Woodbridge's own owner. They had no income. They never paid interest. The owner secretly held the properties through more than 270 limited liability companies. The interest checks investors received were paid with newer investors' money. It was a Ponzi scheme. Meanwhile, millions went to private planes, luxury cars and jewelry.

The Fall

In December 2017, Woodbridge filed for bankruptcy and the SEC charged it with fraud. In 2019 the court entered a judgment of more than $1 billion. The owner pleaded guilty and on August 8, 2019 was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison, the maximum. The Justice Department put the total at more than $1.29 billion from about 9,000 investors, including about $400 million in retirement savings. The SEC also sued the top sales agents. Most settled and were barred from the industry.

Where the Money Is Now

A liquidation trust took over the properties. As of its latest annual report, it had paid investors about $421.6 million over eleven distributions. Payouts have been suspended since August 2023 while lawsuits over the houses play out. For people who put in their retirement, that's years of waiting for part of their money.

“First position” and “secured by real estate” are words. Ask to see the recorded mortgage with your name on it. Ask who the borrower is and whether he's connected to the company. And ask whether the person selling it is registered, and how he's paid. If no one asked you those questions before taking your retirement savings, no one else listened. We will.

Sources

Every fact in this story comes from the public record. Read it for yourself:

A charge or complaint is an allegation, not a finding, unless we say a court, regulator or jury decided it.

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