{"id":253217,"date":"2025-09-25T09:01:23","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T09:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/253217\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T09:01:23","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T09:01:23","slug":"owners-of-radio-shack-pier-1-imports-and-other-brands-accused-by-sec-of-operating-112-million-ponzi-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/253217\/","title":{"rendered":"Owners of Radio Shack, Pier 1 Imports and other brands accused by SEC of operating $112 million Ponzi scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"

A pair of flashy e-commerce entrepreneurs who bought<\/a> bankrupt retail giants \u2014 including Pier 1 Imports, RadioShack, and Modell\u2019s Sporting Goods \u2014 have been accused of running a $112 million Ponzi scheme, according to a new lawsuit.<\/p>\n

The US Securities and Exchange Commission accused Alex Mehr and Tai Lopez, founders of Miami-based Retail Ecommerce Ventures (REV), of duping investors out of roughly $112 million, according to the federal Southern District of Florida filing obtained by the Post <\/p>\n

Mehr and Lopez were known for snatching up struggling brick-and-mortar brands and attempting to rebrand them as online-only shops. doctoralex\/Instagram<\/p>\n

Mehr and Lopez were known for snatching up struggling brick-and-mortar brands and attempting to rebrand them as online-only shops.<\/p>\n

Their business portfolio also includes Dress Barn, Modell\u2019s Sporting Goods, and Stein Mart, the suit said.<\/p>\n

Mehr \u2014 an Iranian-born immigrant who worked in \u201crisk and safety management of NASA\u2019s space exploration missions\u201d \u2014 teamed up with Lopez at the height of the retail carnage in 2019 when nearly 10,000 stores went out of business, the Post previously reported.<\/a><\/p>\n

Lopez is also a social media influencer who has written several self-help books, including his \u201c67 Steps\u201d on how to become \u201cwealthy\u201d that incorporate \u201cteachings of powerful and famous people like Bill Gates, Charlie Munger, Peter Drucker, Gandhi, and my personal mentors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tai Lopez and Floyd Mayweather Jr. attend a basketball game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Golden State Warriors at Staples Center on October 16, 2019. Getty Images<\/p>\n

The business-savvy pair allegedly made \u201cmaterial misrepresentations\u201d to hundreds of investors about the brand\u2019s performance between 2020 and 2022. Christopher Sadowski<\/p>\n

In one of their high-profile deals, REV acquired RadioShack in 2020, three years after the chain\u2019s second bankruptcy.<\/p>\n

They also picked up Modell\u2019s assets and Pier 1 Imports in additional 2020 acquisitions of bankrupt companies.<\/p>\n

The business-savvy pair allegedly made \u201cmaterial misrepresentations\u201d to hundreds of investors about the brand\u2019s performance between 2020 and 2022 \u2014 including claims that the companies were \u201con fire,\u201d the SEC alleged.<\/p>\n

Tai Lopez\u2019s portfolio also includes Dress Barn, Modell\u2019s Sporting Goods, and Stein Mart, according to the suit. Gabriel Olsen<\/p>\n

They also allegedly made bogus promises to prospective investors that money raised for their companies would only be used to fund that specific firm, according to the lawsuit<\/p>\n

\u201cContrary to these representations, while some of the REV Retailer Brands generated revenue, none generated any profits,\u201d the lawsuit said.<\/p>\n

\u201cConsequently, in order to pay interest, dividends and maturing note payments, Defendants resorted to using a combination of loans from outside lenders, merchant cash advances, money raised from new and existing investors, and transfers from other portfolio companies to cover obligations,\u201d the document continued.<\/p>\n

At least $5.9 million or return payments to investors were actually Ponzi-like payments funded by other investors, rather than companies, the SEC said.<\/p>\n

The agency also accused Mehr and Lopez of taking $16.1 million for personal use.<\/p>\n

Neither Lopez nor Mehr immediately responded to a request for comment from The Post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A pair of flashy e-commerce entrepreneurs who bought bankrupt retail giants \u2014 including Pier 1 Imports, RadioShack, and…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":253218,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,27739,525,336,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,72652,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-253217","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-bankruptcy","10":"tag-finance","11":"tag-lawsuits","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkcity","16":"tag-ny","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-securities-and-exchange-commission","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-united-states-of-america","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","23":"tag-us","24":"tag-us-news","25":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115264126452032731","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}