Financial Influencer Grant Cardone Accused Of Fraud By Investors

In March 2022, businessman Grant Cardone stood onstage at his annual conference at the Diplomat Beach Resort in South Florida, preparing to introduce a special guest. Cardone is one of the world’s leading “finfluencers,” or financial influencers, and leverages social media to sell his training programs and real estate investments to his millions of followers. “We expect that our investor base will be largely drawn from Mr. Cardone’s exposure on social media and on media content delivered over the Company’s website,” an offering document for the fund read. However, in December 2022, that decision was overturned in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, which ruled that the investors’ suit “fairly alleges that the nature of social media presents dangers that investors will be persuaded to purchase securities without full and fair information.” The lead plaintiff in the class action, Luis Pino, a retiree from Inglewood, California, claimed he invested $20,000 in Cardone’s real estate funds. The former senior executive who spoke to HuffPost claimed working for Cardone Capital was like “‘Wolf of Wall Street’ or a really bad movie.” In an exclusive interview, the executive alleged that around three years ago, an external auditor found a discrepancy worth millions of dollars in one of the real estate funds, leading Cardone Capital to bring in temp staff to destroy documents.