For months, NBC 5 Responds has been digging into an alleged 'real estate Ponzi scheme' that has financially devastated dozens of South Side families.
For months, NBC 5 Responds has been digging into an alleged"real estate Ponzi scheme" that has financially devastated dozens of South Side families.
Online, iFLIP Chicago describes itself as a “premier real estate group that focuses on providing hands-on learning experiences to new real estate investors with regard to buying, rehabbing and selling single-family homes across the Greater Chicagoland Area.” But many of those graduates said Bey used those eight weeks to win their trust, establish himself as a mentor and set them up for the “scheme” ahead.
Brown, a mother of five, signed up for an iFLIP boot camp in 2021 and said she was impressed by the company's social media videos and online success stories. Many investors said they paid iFLIP’s preferred attorney, Alex Ranjha, to represent them at closing, but said he never discussed that clause with them.
Haamid is currently suing iFLIP Chicago for fraud after learning $60,000 in Bey’s late interest fees were tacked onto her loan. As a result of these so-called “predatory” loans, many other investors said they couldn’t access the loan money they needed to finish their flips.NBC 5 Responds is now hearing from another group of iFLIP investors who said the company’s deception goes beyond predator lending.“He sold …pipe dreams and now we're living a nightmare,” Miranda Booker, an iFLIP investor, single mother and childhood friend of Bey’s said.“Everything I came in the game with, I lost,” Deshon Carr said.
“I reached out to the funding company and asked them what was taking place and they told me my loan was cross collateralized and I'm like, ‘OK, what is that? I didn't authorize that. I've been paying you guys on time. I never missed a payment with you guys. What is going on?’” Carr said.E-mails between the lender and Bey show money that should have been earmarked for renovation costs or “draws” was being rerouted to Bey’s overdue accounts.
“We were told that we owe $375,000 because the lender tacked on an additional $60,000 of debt from properties that have absolutely nothing to do with us,” Haamid said. “We all want justice.” But the investors would face several other challenges they didn’t anticipate, from multiple failed city inspections to runaway contractors.
“It's falling apart. it's going to snap,” Carr said, pointing to a splintering, crooked support beam in his kitchen. It’s one of the many things around the home Carr said has to be completely redone.As part of their agreement with iFLIP, Bey was to serve as"Construction Manager" and oversee the renovation and contractors. But the investors said Bey moved to Atlanta in early 2023 and didn’t tell them.
Brown said she couldn’t let her flip fail. She had used the LLC of her existing business, a trucking company, to obtain funding with Bey. “It's sitting here 'cause nothing else could be done. Why? Because all of our funds had run out,” Booker said. “Everything that originally was done had to be removed, torn out and redone again. So after you've spent money constantly, we're doing the same thing over and over you're running out because we're paying a mortgage, we're paying utilities.”“We were doomed from the beginning with the cross collateralization agreement.
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