"You should also bring along a trusted partner."
Tarla Makaeff purchased the three-day Trump University “Fast Track to Foreclosure Training” workshop for approximately $1,495. Two people were permitted to attend for the $1,495 price, so Plaintiff Makaeff attended with a friend and split the cost. During the three-day workshop, Plaintiff Makaeff was told to raise her credit card limit four times so she could enter in to “real estate transactions.” However, at the end of the session, Trump University revealed its real reason for pushing Plaintiff Makaeff and Class Members to extend their credit limits: to use that credit to purchase an additional $35,000 Trump seminar. Based on Defendants’ numerous misrepresentations, on or about August 10, 2008, Plaintiff Makaeff enrolled in Trump’s Gold Program for $34,995, plus the variable APR finances charges, interest fees, and late fees she had to pay her credit card company.
The day Plaintiff Makaeff signed up for the $34,995 program, James Harris immediately told Plaintiff Makaeff that he would now be personally available to her by phone and email, and shortly thereafter emailed to her “we can do a ton together.” Then, she never heard from him again.
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After Plaintiff Makaeff complained about the lack of assistance provided by her assigned mentors, Rick McNally and Mike Kasper, Tad Lignell, the mentor with the “power team,” offered to help her personally, but then engaged in misappropriate conduct and misadvised her regarding a property in Las Vegas in which he had a personal financial interest.
In one of the two deals offered to Plaintiff Makaeff, Trump mentor Tad Lignell introduced Plaintiff Makaeff to a real estate agent, Noah Herrera of Las Vegas regarding a property purchase in Las Vegas. Lignell did not disclose to Plaintiff Makaeff that he had a financial interest in referring Trump students to Noah Herrera.
The Power Team then misquoted comps to Plaintiff Makaeff. Rather than making a profit on the deal, as she would have made if the comps had been correct, she would have likely suffered a 20% loss on the transaction. When she discovered that the comps were incorrect and that she was likely to lose money on the deal, she looked for a way out. As it turned out,
Mr. Lignell’s protégé fraudulently and illegally altered the real estate documents Plaintiff Makaeff had previously signed at the escrow office without Plaintiff Makaeff’s authorization or approval. As a result of this illegal and fraudulent conduct, Plaintiff Makaeff was permitted to void the transaction, which she did.
The only other real estate transaction that came Plaintiff Makaeff’s way involved a Houston property. After being told by Trump representatives that the deals “are starting to POUR IN NOW,” the only deal that came in was the Houston deal. It was outside of Trump University’s recommended guidelines for real estate investing, as it would provide only $40/month positive cash flow, and Trump’s own representative, Stephen Gilpin instructed Plaintiff Makaeff never to accept a deal under $100/month positive cash flow. Furthermore, this potential deal raised an inherent and improper conflict of interest, as
it was referred by a partner (Mike Kasper) to the Trump mentor, Rick McNally, who stood to financially benefit from the deal.
http://www.trumpuniversitylitigation.com/Content/Documents/Makaeff Complaint.pdf