If you spend enough time driving in Texas, you will eventually see a pink Cadillac with a Mary Kay cosmetics logo on the back, either on the road or in a parking lot. For every Mary Kay saleswoman who persevered until she won a pink Cadillac, there are hundreds who have nothing to show for their efforts to become successful entrepreneurs except a dining room table piled high with boxes of lipstick and powder compacts and a mountain of debt. The multilevel marketing business model is a harsh mistress, to say the least. Everyone knows that pyramid schemes are fraud; the only reason that multilevel marketing businesses are legal is because they sell tangible products instead of just seeking investments. If you are just collecting investments for an impossible or exaggerated project, though, you could face criminal charges for operating a pyramid scheme.
If you are being accused of participating in an illegal pyramid scheme, contact a Texas white-collar crime lawyer.
Texans Convicted of Defrauding Chinese Investors in Real Estate Pyramid Scheme Will Not Face Extradition
At least four people have faced criminal charges for a real estate fraud scheme that targeted Chinese investors. The defendants told the investors that they were buying vacant lots on which they would build real estate properties and then sell them. The defendants promised to pay the investors a modest monthly sum while the properties were being built and then a percentage of the sale price when they sold. They misrepresented not only the number of lots they bought but also their value. The defendants never developed the lots. The money that early investors received came from investments by later investors; in other words, it was a pyramid scheme. By the time the first arrests occurred, the investors had lost a combined $26 million.
Two defendants pleaded guilty in 2022, and another two cases were still pending in federal court by the end of 2023. The defendants are facing charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and securities fraud. In multinational financial crime cases like this one, there is sometimes an option to extradite defendants to another jurisdiction. That is not a possibility in this case; the defendants will all face their charges in the United States. This is because extradition from one country to another is only possible if the two countries have signed an extradition treaty. There is no extradition treaty between the United States and China.
Contact the Law Office of Patrick J. McLain, PLLC About Criminal Defense Cases
A Dallas criminal defense lawyer can help you avoid a conviction if you are facing charges of real estate fraud conspiracy. Contact the Law Office of Patrick J. McLain, PLLC, in Dallas, Texas, to discuss your case.