Thousands of retail investors are facing potential losses after investing in a $140 million real estate platform that subsequently froze capital redemptions. The company pooled money from individual investors to purchase commercial properties, pitching low entry barriers and steady returns. However, macroeconomic pressures, including high interest rates and declining property values, combined with operational challenges to trigger severe liquidity constraints. As a result, investor funds remain locked while the firm undergoes financial restructuring and legal scrutiny.
- The real estate investment firm raised approximately $140 million from thousands of individual retail investors.
- The business model targeted small-scale investors by offering lower minimum investment limits for commercial property projects.
- Rising interest rates and falling commercial real estate valuations destabilized the platform’s financial operations.
- The company suspended income distributions and blocked investors from withdrawing their capital.
- Investors face delayed liquidity and uncertainty regarding the potential recovery of their principal investments.
The Wall Street Journal is an American business and economic-focused international daily newspaper based in New York City. The Journal is published six days a week by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corp.
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Original video here.
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Thank you Wall Street journal for going back to the good old days when you actually did reporting. I know the Australian ruined the newspaper but he will not live forever though he is trying desperately😅😅😅
If these tenants were not happy they could just move out elsewhere. If they stayed that means the rent was so low that they'd rather stay in those poor conditions. It's their choice.
It's pretty bad when the city has to make up a big chart…just for your property f-ups, violations, Etc
What disgusting scam 🤢
I’ll buy all of their Cleveland properties
How can I feel pity for rent seekers? Their ambition and greed did it for them.
The wolf is always looking for the next meal and you volunteered. Bottom line.
Non-locals trying to make double-digit returns in city of Detroit real estate? That's tough for anyone to do, let alone non-locals. I used to live in Detroit, and now live in the suburbs, which is the only area I invest in, not in the city. It's so difficult to make money in the city on cheap rentals. The city has lost 2/3 of its population over the past 60 years, so cheap properties are everywhere, but finding reliable tenants who won't trash the units or squat in the units without paying rent is a challenge that only the best landlord are up to. These "investments" were doomed from the start.
BTW, didn't these investors ever watch "8 Mile Road" and realize what sort of city they were investing in?
When a company refuses to advocate to sell shares or portions into the place it's working, then it's a scam, and it's investing money out of the area and the rights and value of that area out into places where it cannot be verified or validated either. Wholly a scam in every faucet and way. Do not trust things which wont permit access to locality and local laws, people, and scrutiny it's not a great sign, ever.
The US Government should not allow this – but wait it doesnt care about its people having jobs, food, housing or stability. Foreign investors should not be allowed to buy or invest in our land or housed – what a scam!!!!
WSJ has been on fire. TY, Tomas and everyone who worked on this excellent reporting.
Another crypto scam. Stop. Falling. For. This.
America is so screwed
If you want to invest in real estate from small amounts just open an account on whatever broker and buy shares of REITs! Or a diversified ETF which invests in REITs itself.
No, they don't give 2-digit returns, but at least they aren't scams.
It’s a safe bet to assume any business that’s related to crypto to be a scam.
Ponzi
Can’t invest in the US because that makes it easier to inspect and visit dilapidated properties. Red flag
If your not a US citizen, you should not be able to buy or invest in residentials. Sure, non US citizens should be able to buy and invest in commercial but when you allow non US to start investing or buying residential stuff, thats when the big scammers come in and destroy citizens lives. Most commercial have money to fight them and have resources to research. Residentials, normal citizens, many live day to day and cant afford to fight companies. If they are in the US we have help to fight them but living in another country not even US Citizens makes it impossible for regular people to get justice.
What irks me, is that we in the US are fighting to own property in our own country agsinst private equity companies that reside both here AND abroad.
The Full Disclosure part of financial documents really empowers the power of the scam to the scum bag scammers.
Incompetence and dishonesty will always ruin a business.
Good report. I've been investing in the stock market for over 35 years. I've had a few of my investments go to zero, but overall investments have done well for me. I've never invested in real estate directly except for a few private REITs – again some have done well and others have gone to zero. But this report is spot on with fraud. As if I needed another reason to dislike the French. Ha, ha.
Destroyed a great new innovative multi family investment vehicle 😮😮😮.
Hopefully SEC and USA 🇺🇸 Congress can investigate 🔎 to reintroduce international real estate tokens with reforms.
This type of investment for help solve affordable housing crisis in USA 🇺🇸 and successfully redevelop inner cities from coast to coast
They only allowed foreign investors because anyone from the US would know Detroit was a horrible idea.
It's not all little hats but it's always them
We really need to ban foreign ownership of our properties unless they also live here.
These guys need to be arrested.
Ponzi scheme, plain and simple.
Everything is crypto nowadays. We'll soon be eating crypto food.
That investor is acting like this is some kind of revolutionary business model. It isn't. People have been investing in real property for a long time with the intention of making a return on their investment from rents being paid. Just adding crypto to the mix doesn't make it new.
People also dont realize how tough the rental market is in the city. Rentals are either WILDLY overpriced for the area (speculation prices abound) or youre dealing with fraudsters (the local ones who live in the suburbs are finally getting fines and court dates from the city). Up and moving is expensive, time consuming, etc. and if youre already in the working poor class its an added obstacle and stress.
"Buying shares" of reit became hyped in real estate circles that I frequent a few years ago and I was immediately skeptical. Remote wholesalers were pushing this idea to local investor clubs and I was telling people to look deeper bc it sounded fishy.
Taking a 20% cut in a round trip is crazy!!
I don’t buy/ invest things I don’t understand. Taking REALestate ( key is REAL) and splitting it up into shares , not real, and then putting it into Crypto VERY UNREAL. I would guess that a large percentage of the “invtestors” didn’t truly understand it.
Im a French dude who invested around 1500$ in it. It is always easy to say afterwards it was a scam…
I still don't know what percentage of scam it is (I mean, some rents have been collected, it is not a 100% ponzi scheme, a part of rents I received were probably real rents).
I think two things that make this scam not so easy to spot are :
– the time it lasted (more than 6 years distributing rents!)
– video meetings every week, where the two Jacobson Brothers were discussing about many topics, it looked that they were really transparent (in appearance of course)
Scammers and the poor people who suffer! B.S.
What about HUD? No rules on housing and currency on purchasing homes. Can the homeowners complain there??? The City of Detroit suing the company only??!
real token by selling exclusively outside to foreign investors.
remy j and brother jean-marc Jacobson…are they protected by french laws? which Americans have proxy overseas for these "Real T aka Real Token".
where else in USA are this or similar companies stealing? yes
14:19 So states attacked by red policy, Michigan and ohio, for example. 15:49
sniff, sniff, sniff…Real estate? Do we have another connection? Don't expect USA to prosecute.
How do you even fix that with $50k?