Best Buy Cheated 6 Out of $2.65M for ‘Sham Businesses’: NJ Suit
Best Buy bilked six entrepreneurs out of $2.65 million through its participation in a “fraudulent scheme,” inducing them to invest in “sham businesses that supposedly provided delivery and installation services to Best Buy, but in reality, did no such thing…
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and were actually part of a Ponzi scheme,” alleged a complaint (in Pacer) Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Newark, New Jersey. Best Buy “validated these potential investments by twice providing private guided tours of its restricted New Jersey distribution center” to the entrepreneurs, “during which many Best Buy employees corroborated all of the investment’s sales pitch,” it said. “Armed with Best Buy’s representations that the businesses were not only legitimate, but thriving,” the plaintiffs went forward with their investments but soon discovered “that the supposed businesses did not own any trucks, did not make any pickups from Best Buy’s warehouse, and did not deliver any products on Best Buy’s behalf,” it said. Alleging Best Buy aided and abetted fraud and engaged in “negligent misrepresentation,” the complaint seeks recovery of the $2.65 million, plus interest. Best Buy didn’t respond to our queries Wednesday.