{"id":4822,"date":"2017-12-21T18:32:27","date_gmt":"2017-12-22T00:32:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/?p=4751"},"modified":"2022-04-01T12:53:42","modified_gmt":"2022-04-01T17:53:42","slug":"woodbridge-group-owner-accused-1-2b-ponzi-scam-targeted-8400-investors-including-senior-investors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/woodbridge-group-owner-accused-1-2b-ponzi-scam-targeted-8400-investors-including-senior-investors\/","title":{"rendered":"Woodbridge Group and Owner Accused of $1.2B Ponzi Scam that Targeted Over 8,400 Investors, Including Senior Investors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The US Securities and Exchange Commission has filed financial fraud charges against the Woodbridge Group of Companies, LLC and its owner Robert H. Shapiro. The Woodbridge Group is comprised of unregistered investment companies. According to the regulator, Woodbridge and Shapiro ran a $1.2B Ponzi Scam that bilked over 8,400 investors, many of whom where older investors. At least 2,600 investors collectively spent close to $400M that came from their IRAs.<\/p>\n<p>The civil fraud charges include other alleged federal securities law violations. The SEC also announced an asset freeze to keep more investor funds from dissipating. The regulator wants restoration of allegedly ill-gotten gains plus interest, as well as financial penalties.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Senior Financial Fraud<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The Commission\u2019s complaint accused Woodbridge and its owner of defrauding seniors using a \u201csham\u201d business model that involved selling investments in unregistered Woodbridge funds. The company presented its main business as giving loans to third-party commercial property owners that were paying 11-15% in yearly interest for \u201c&#8217;hard money\u2019 short-term financing.\u201d In fact, claims the SEC, the property owners were not third-parties but were companies belonging to Shapiro. Not only that but they had no income streams and never paid interest on these supposed loans. Woodbridge and Shapiro are said to have used investor money to buy nearly 200 commercial and residential properties in California and Colorado.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/woodbridge-group-owner-accused-1-2b-ponzi-scam-targeted-8400-investors-including-senior-investors\/#more-4822\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The US Securities and Exchange Commission has filed financial fraud charges against the Woodbridge Group of Companies, LLC and its owner Robert H. Shapiro. The Woodbridge Group is comprised of unregistered investment companies. According to the regulator, Woodbridge and Shapiro ran a $1.2B Ponzi Scam that bilked over 8,400 investors, many of whom where older [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3792,3760,3741,3803,1],"tags":[2937,2928],"class_list":["post-4822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ponzi-scams","category-sec-enforcement","category-securities-fraud","category-senior-investors","category-uncategorized","tag-fpcm-investments","tag-woodbridge-group-of-companies"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Woodbridge Group and Owner Accused of $1.2B Ponzi Scam that Targeted Over 8,400 Investors, Including Senior Investors &#8212; SSEK Law Firm<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The US Securities and Exchange Commission has filed financial fraud charges against the Woodbridge Group of Companies, LLC and its owner Robert H. Shapiro.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/woodbridge-group-owner-accused-1-2b-ponzi-scam-targeted-8400-investors-including-senior-investors\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Woodbridge Group and Owner Accused of $1.2B Ponzi Scam that Targeted Over 8,400 Investors, Including Senior Investors &#8212; SSEK Law Firm\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"The US Securities and Exchange Commission has filed financial fraud charges against the Woodbridge Group of Companies, LLC and its owner Robert H. Shapiro.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Shepherd Smith Edwards &amp; Kantas, LLP\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Woodbridge Group and Owner Accused of $1.2B Ponzi Scam that Targeted Over 8,400 Investors, Including Senior Investors &#8212; SSEK Law Firm","description":"The US Securities and Exchange Commission has filed financial fraud charges against the Woodbridge Group of Companies, LLC and its owner Robert H. Shapiro.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/woodbridge-group-owner-accused-1-2b-ponzi-scam-targeted-8400-investors-including-senior-investors\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Woodbridge Group and Owner Accused of $1.2B Ponzi Scam that Targeted Over 8,400 Investors, Including Senior Investors &#8212; SSEK Law Firm","twitter_description":"The US Securities and Exchange Commission has filed financial fraud charges against the Woodbridge Group of Companies, LLC and its owner Robert H. Shapiro.","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Shepherd Smith Edwards &amp; Kantas, LLP","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/woodbridge-group-owner-accused-1-2b-ponzi-scam-targeted-8400-investors-including-senior-investors\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/woodbridge-group-owner-accused-1-2b-ponzi-scam-targeted-8400-investors-including-senior-investors\/"},"author":{"name":"Shepherd Smith Edwards &amp; Kantas, LLP","@id":"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e0240e0754684b69f7d6a7de1b9f1431"},"headline":"Woodbridge Group and Owner Accused of $1.2B Ponzi Scam that Targeted Over 8,400 Investors, Including Senior Investors","datePublished":"2017-12-22T00:32:27+00:00","dateModified":"2022-04-01T17:53:42+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/woodbridge-group-owner-accused-1-2b-ponzi-scam-targeted-8400-investors-including-senior-investors\/"},"wordCount":581,"keywords":["FPCM Investments","Woodbridge Group of Companies"],"articleSection":["Ponzi Scams","SEC Enforcement","Securities Fraud","Senior Investors"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/woodbridge-group-owner-accused-1-2b-ponzi-scam-targeted-8400-investors-including-senior-investors\/","url":"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/woodbridge-group-owner-accused-1-2b-ponzi-scam-targeted-8400-investors-including-senior-investors\/","name":"Woodbridge Group and Owner Accused of $1.2B Ponzi Scam that Targeted Over 8,400 Investors, Including Senior Investors &#8212; SSEK Law Firm","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-12-22T00:32:27+00:00","dateModified":"2022-04-01T17:53:42+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e0240e0754684b69f7d6a7de1b9f1431"},"description":"The US Securities and Exchange Commission has filed financial fraud charges against the Woodbridge Group of Companies, LLC and its owner Robert H. Shapiro.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/woodbridge-group-owner-accused-1-2b-ponzi-scam-targeted-8400-investors-including-senior-investors\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/woodbridge-group-owner-accused-1-2b-ponzi-scam-targeted-8400-investors-including-senior-investors\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/woodbridge-group-owner-accused-1-2b-ponzi-scam-targeted-8400-investors-including-senior-investors\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Woodbridge Group and Owner Accused of $1.2B Ponzi Scam that Targeted Over 8,400 Investors, Including Senior Investors"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/","name":"Investor Lawyers Blog","description":"Published By Investment Fraud Attorneys \u2014 Shepherd Smith Edwards &amp; Kantas, LLP","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e0240e0754684b69f7d6a7de1b9f1431","name":"Shepherd Smith Edwards &amp; Kantas, LLP","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c7f8f04990816cd4044977eb59908da8c8d1ae487cc919cebd7027b74a0740a3?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c7f8f04990816cd4044977eb59908da8c8d1ae487cc919cebd7027b74a0740a3?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c7f8f04990816cd4044977eb59908da8c8d1ae487cc919cebd7027b74a0740a3?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Shepherd Smith Edwards &amp; Kantas, LLP"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/"]}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pedX9K-1fM","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4822"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26089,"href":"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4822\/revisions\/26089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}