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View Full Version : NY sues 'Trump University' get-rich plans



littleroundman
08-24-2013, 08:55 PM
NY sues 'Trump University' get-rich plans

NEW York's attorney-general is suing Donald Trump for $US40 million ($A44.63 million), saying the real estate mogul helped run a phony "Trump University" that promised to make students rich but instead steered them into expensive and mostly useless seminars.
Attorney-General Eric Schneiderman says many of the 5000 students who paid up to $US35,000 thought they would at least meet Trump.

Instead, Schneiderman says all they got was their picture taken in front of a life-size picture of Trump.

Schneiderman is suing the program, Trump as the university chairman, and the former president of the university in a case to be handled in the state Supreme Court in Manhattan.

He filed the suit on Saturday against the program and Trump, accusing them of engaging in persistent fraud, illegal and deceptive conduct and violating federal consumer protection law.

Schneiderman seeks the $US40 million mostly to pay restitution to consumers.

There was no immediate comment from Trump's spokeswoman on Saturday.

The lawsuit says many of the wannabe moguls were unable to land even one real estate deal and were left far worse off than before the lessons, facing thousands of dollars in debt for the seminar program billed as a top quality university with Trump's "hand-picked" instructors.


Yahoo.finance (http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/ny-ag-sues-trump-university-says-rich-promises-011235258.html)

path2prosperity
08-25-2013, 02:30 AM
This is great news. It sickened me to the core when I encountered members of social communities who referred to the ponzi or pyramids which they were pedaling as universities.

Perhaps some people who joined outfits like "Thrive University", "Success University" and "McDonald's University" (now Hamburger University) will take note and start reporting some of the practices which go on in these phoney educational establishments to the authorities.

path2prosperity
08-27-2013, 03:44 AM
There was a brilliant documentary about some Trump practices on BBC2 about a month ago. It concerned his promises to bring prosperity to Scotland which did not materialize. The whole issue was was shown to have prompted a lot of extremely unethical behaviour and evasive business practices by Trump employees.

Any journalist or researcher with contacts in the BBC should try to see if he or she can find a way to watch the whole programme from start to finish. Empires rise but they also fall boys and girls.

path2prosperity
08-27-2013, 04:09 AM
Dr David King (http://www.linkedin.com/in/drking) claimed to have obtained a PhD from Success University.

Wikipedia makes it very clear that this outfit does not employ any professors so the claim to have been awarded a PHD is extremely suspect.

Quote Wikipedia. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Success_University)

"Success University, founded in January 2005 by Matt Morris, is a privately held company based in Dallas, Texas.[1][2] It has also been identified as a pyramid scheme.[3][4][5] Success University does not employ any professors and does not have any premises; instead members are offered online courses on topics such as success in business, or physical wellbeing.[6] Members have to pay an introduction fee, and are then encouraged to invite other people to join in exchange for a part of the benefits.[3][4] "

As Dr David King has been on Adlandpro advisory panel, he needs to be encouraged to start spilling the beans on ponzi promoting forums like scamlandpro and other con artists who post as fake "Doctor," Reverend" or "Sir."

Is the Dr David King PhD genuine?

He may have seen the error of his ways and he may be able to contribute here. He is still around as he sent me an invitation to be friends with him on Facebook very recently. I declined that invitation but I will communicate with him, if he wishes to join us here and talk about outfits like Success University and Trump University.

JustTooMuchTime
08-28-2013, 05:20 PM
From a Class Action lawsuit:


"Trump University representatives also told students during the three-day seminar to raise their credit card limits four times during the break for “real estate transactions,” and had students prepare detailed financial statements, presumably for real estate purchases. In fact, Trump’s real reason for having students increase their credit limits and provide detailed financial statements was to assess how much money each student had to spend on the next Trump seminar, and to persuade the students to use their increased credit limit to purchase the Trump Gold Program for $34,995.”

http://saltydroid.info/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Trump-University-Class-Action-Complaint.pdf

& SaltyDroid's recent post about the AG action, etc:

» Donald Trump’s Rich Dad University (http://saltydroid.info/donald-trumps-rich-dad-university/)

GlimDropper
09-01-2013, 06:25 PM
Real estate seminars have been a constant staple of the American "get rick quick" subculture for longer than most of us have been alive. Owing to the fact that my father is a straight up sucker for this sort of thing and is reluctant to throwing anything out, he's almost an unofficial archivist of this phenomena. In a way it's almost interesting, if you go back before Robert G. Allen and his "No Money Down" pitch (which was near universally copied by his even more unscrupulous successors) a book about real estate investing cost you about the same as any other book and generally sold themselves by giving their readers practical advice about investing in real estate. Ho boy have times changed.

I know nothing about "Trump University" or their business practices but if they were offering practical education for a reasonable price they would have been as rare as a pure white unicorn in the world of seminar upsells. I will be taking some interest in the outcome of this case. An important point to make, the get rich quick seminar circuit has almost nothing to do with educating it's participants so much as entertaining them into the upsell. Start with a free (or near free) meeting then hook them into a mid priced info product which is almost nothing but an infomercial for a three day $1,500 to $4,500 seminar at a local hotel. The first day of that seminar may (or may not) have some valid information (stripped of inconvenient facts of course) but ends with a build up to a loyalty test/credit trap. They'll do something like coach you on how to call your credit card company and up your limit.

The next day they'll ask you how it went. If you didn't even bother to make the call they'll throw a guilt trip on you, "what, you're not willing to make an effort to improve yourself"? If you did call but didn't get your limit raised they know you probably don't have enough money (or credit) to bother with. But if you glace toward the back of the room when anyone mentions what their new credit limit is you'll notice all the Real Estate Counselors sales staff writing down exactly how much OPM (Other Peoples Money) that person has to invest hemorrhage out on further education upsells.

Here's the game, the lead will have a motivational speaking background, if they have any experience in the topic of the seminar it's almost always a coincidence. They are there to pump you up and make you feel like raising your hands and eyes so high into the sky swept away in the spirit of exaltation that you'll never feel them picking your pocket. That emotional high don't last long which is (in part) why they only have a 72 hr refund policy but it's also why the #1 product they'll cram down your throat offer you is a fully front loaded "Mentorship" package. In the original meaning of the word a mentor was someone who took a personal interest in you and your development and did so for the gratification of helping a younger person who could benefit from their tutelage. Even if a fee for service is added to the equation an honest and ethical mentor will charge for time as it's used. That way if you don't find equity in their teaching you can stop using their service. These seminar cowboy mentorship services don't work like that. They'll con you into paying for six months of services in advance on the promise that you'll be dealing one on one with someone who is an expert in the field and will never let you fail. When in fact you'll be talking to some telemarketer who's only interest in you will be the commission they can make for selling you on the next (outrageously overpriced) seminar.

They will continue to bleed you and mislead you until you stop sending them money at which point they'll sell your name and contact info to other con artists. Rinse lather repeat.

Again, I don't know if Trump University used this template, it was the modus operandi perfected by Russ Whitney before his reputation (and litigation history) became so clouded that he needed to find someone even less scrupulous than himself to put his name on the franchise (Robert Kiyosaki took up that mantel if you were wondering). But reading the complaint against T.U. reminds me very much of what got me started down this long and winding road in the first place.

ribshaw
09-03-2013, 10:02 AM
Real estate seminars have been a constant staple of the American "get rick quick" subculture for longer than most of us have been alive. Owing to the fact that my father is a straight up sucker for this sort of thing and is reluctant to throwing anything out, he's almost an unofficial archivist of this phenomena.

Me too, will give you the nod when I put my collection on EBAY, a heck of an Xmas gift for an aficionado. Somewhere along the line I decided real estate was not for me, probably owing to me not being very handy and finding a dependable handyman is harder than finding that unicorn you mentioned. A few things that really strike me about even some of these "advanced" seminars is how lacking they are in what I suspected an investor really needs. A few of the sets I have originally sold in the thousands of dollars, yet were little more content than the original sales pitch.

We were away for the weekend and I was laying in the hotel room watching TV, (cause there is nothing I enjoy more than doing on vacation things I do at home) but I caught one of the fix and flip type shows. The first house they bought had holes in the pipes that had water leaking all over the house. Second house had termite damage, and lead paint. And the third house had a foundation that shifted. Some of the show I suspect is a put on as everyone likes a train wreck.

I can't think of a single program I have viewed that comes even remotely close to addressing things like this in a real world setting. They gloss it over like you can hire others to fix this stuff, or hire inspectors, etc. Which is true to a degree, but you still need some knowledge that what the people you hire are telling you is accurate. These are also the things that can make or break a profit in a real estate deal.

On the credit side, if folks have to borrow money to take any training, then I am wondering where they are going to get money to fund all these deals. There may have been a brief period in 2007 when money went to anyone who could fog a mirror, but that day is long gone. If fact from what I have read most of the investors are doing all cash deals, and money is very scarce. And unless you buy a property very well, it is almost impossible to be cash flow positive if you finance at 100% or 110% as some of these hucksters endorse. (So what on earth are you getting for this advanced training)?

For $30,000, you could almost get a college degree at some state schools, technical training in plumbing, electrical work, or general contracting, which I would suspect would serve a would be real estate investor much better than anything taught at the local Ramada.