Popular Jacksonville, Florida, entrepreneur Janay White has found herself in the hot seat for a slew of fraud allegations due to what investors claim are “bad business practices.”
As previously reported by BLACK ENTERPRISE, White was best known as a formerly homeless mother of two children in Jacksonville who worked her way up to owning eight different businesses as well as 50 Airbnbs by attaining financial freedom through her own efforts in order to support her children.
However, the fraud suit paints White as a disappointing business partner. Rayvon Griffin alleges that she was scammed for more than $10,000 due to White’s systemic bad business practices. Griff
in said that she, like several other investors, was made to believe she would be guaranteed to receive properties ready for renovation and later sell them, but White never came through on her end of the deal.She claims in the lawsuit that White is “good at avoiding things and questions, that’s when I realized I had to take a step back.”
Griffin was able to pull out and remain financially stable, and she said she felt bad for the investors who weren’t so lucky and ended up losing everything that they had.
Those investors, along with Griffin, have been listed as suing White for fraud, according to First Coast ABC News.
White has denied all the allegations, claiming that the situation was an example of when deals fall through in business, and adding that not all investments work out.
So far, a Facebook group has identified 9,400 victims of the scam. White said she doesn’t “even know that many people [so] that’s impossible.”
However, the investors’ attorney, Chris Dempsey, says White may have scammed more than $200,000 from various investors.
White has remained unswayed and urges people not to let “a few complaints” diminish the positive things she’s done for her community as she awaits her Dec. 4 court date.
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