by Structured Settlement Watchdog
Can you trademark a Ponzi Scheme? Apparently yes, because Woodbridge Wealth, formerly known as Woodbridge Structured Funding LLC, of Boca Raton, Florida, has now been granted trademark 5387257.
In December 2017, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued luxury real estate developer Robert Shapiro and his Woodbridge Group of Companies, which included Woodbridge Structured Funding LLC for allegedly operating a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme targeting thousands of investors.
The SEC in December 2017 won an asset freeze against former Robert Shapiro and several of his companies that are not part of the Chapter 11 proceeding. Meanwhile, the regulator has asked a federal judge in Miami to appoint a receiver to oversee all of the Woodbridge companies in a move that, if approved, could upend the bankruptcy proceedings.
In the SEC’s lawsuit, the regulator alleged that Shapiro used a web of companies, the vast majority of which it said had no income and never made interest payments, to conceal his ownership and “line his pockets with millions of investor dollars” to pay for chartered planes, country club fees, luxury vehicles and jewelry.
Read more details about the Woodbridge Wealth Ponzi Scheme in my December 22, 2017 commentary.