Articles by deBanked Staff

Kris Roglieri Arrested for Wire Fraud, in Jail

Update: Roglieri to stay in prison indefinitely while awaiting trial after shocking revelations.

Kris Roglieri has been arrested by the FBI for wire fraud. He is currently in jail pending a June 3 hearing. The sealed criminal complaint was unsealed on Friday May 31 after months of news headlines and civil court proceedings revealed that his commercial lending business may have actually been operating as a fraudulent ponzi scheme. More than $100 million of customer funds are alleged to have gone missing. Roglieri himself is in personal Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

The criminal complaint focuses on just one alleged crime, however, wire fraud for how Roglieri dealt with a client named 1800 Park Avenue LLC. As part of that, Roglieri committed to fund a $98.9M line of credit to 1800 Park in exchange for a $5M upfront interest payment that would purportedly be held in trust. Roglieri is then alleged to have misappropriated all the funds for his own personal use.

Among all the former clients of Roglieri claiming they were victims of fraud, 1800 Park was one of the last to enter the picture. 1800 Park didn’t file its civil suit until April 3, months after several others, where it not only named Roglieri and his companies Prime Commercial Lending, LLC and Prime Capital Ventures, LLC as co-defendants but also three of Roglieri’s employees. Roglieri was the only person named in the criminal complaint, however.

Although Roglieri had represented in his Chapter 11 bankruptcy (now converted to Chapter 7) that his businesses had stopped operating, one of those businesses (NACLB) has publicly represented that it had merely rebranded to a new name, and it is still soliciting payments from potential customers under that name.

Broker Fair 2024 Recap

Broker Fair 2024 in New York City went off with a bang, surpassing attendance of both Broker Fair 2023 and deBanked CONNECT MIAMI 2024. The all-Kosher catered event ran a lean format of high impact speakers with an optimized networking atmosphere. The Preshow Party at Somewhere Nowhere NYC sponsored by Triton Recovery Group was also a night to remember! Pictures will go up this week.

Some key highlights
Platinum Sponsors: Triton Recovery Group, Bitty Advance, Lendini

Tech Demonstrations: Ocrolus, Heron Data, Cloudsquare

Featured Speaker: Peter Ribeiro

SBA Lending Speakers: Bob Coleman & Adam Seery

NY Legal and Regulatory Update Attorneys: Scott Pearson, Kate Fisher, Chris Murray, Patrick Siegfried

Kris Roglieri Bankruptcy Converted to Chapter 7, The End of NACLB?

A judge approved a motion to convert the Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding for the embattled Kris Roglieri to a Chapter 7. The intent behind this is to kickstart the process to sell off Roglieri’s assets for the benefit of creditors whereas before Roglieri hoped that his various wholly owned businesses could somehow continue. The trustee, however, said that such an outcome was impossible given that Roglieri did not maintain financial records, has no revenue coming in, is being investigated by the FBI for ~$100 million in allegedly missing customer funds, and has no path forward. The creditors at issue in the matter felt similarly.

Among Roglieri’s wholly owned assets are Commercial Capital Training Group and the National Alliance of Commercial Loan Brokers (NACLB conference), according to documents he previously submitted to the court. He owns 100% of the membership interest in each LLC. During a prior hearing, the Chapter 11 trustee asked Roglieri if he understood that he could not transfer NACLB’s assets without trustee approval after rumors swirled that he was trying to sell it. At the time, Roglieri said that there had been no serious talks in that regard. It may have been a hard sell and could still continue to be. Despite the NACLB conference’s longevity, for example, Roglieri asserted during the proceedings that he did not maintain formal financial records for it and there are no balance sheets, P&Ls, or statement of cash flows related to it. It also apparently stiffed the venue of its last event since it lists an unpaid debt of $436,237 to Caesars Entertainment in Las Vegas.

The NACLB conference has also apparently changed its name in order to distance itself from its connection with Roglieri, according to emails reviewed by deBanked. On March 25, an official NACLB mass email communication asserted that the conference would go forward “despite uncertainties surrounding this year’s event due to unrelated legal issues” and that “we are thrilled to announce that the annual conference will proceed this November under a new rebranded name, maintaining the trusted team that has organized the event for the past 9 years.”

Following that, an official NACLB conference representative sent out emails affirming that it was rebranding to the “Commercial Loan Broker Association” and that the conference would actually take place in a new location with a different date.

The Receiver managing Prime Capital Ventures, LLC, the main entity at the heart of the Roglieri saga, filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for it on Tuesday. As part of that, he stated that the entity owes more than $100 million to its creditors.

Funding Merchants in New York? What Don’t You Know?

It doesn’t matter if you’re sitting in an office located in Florida, California, New Jersey, or anywhere else, if you work with any merchants in New York State the legal stakes have never been higher. If you saw even half the commentary and feedback that deBanked has reviewed over the last two months about what’s taking place, you’d understand why you really can’t afford to miss this segment at Broker Fair this coming Monday in NYC. You’re not the only one with questions.

Don’t be that person that reaches out after it’s too late to say you wish you had known something ahead of time. Hear it from qualified attorneys that are both on the panel and in attendance at the event on May 20th in NYC. Already have a lawyer that advises you on all this? Great! Send them to this too. You only get one shot to do it right in this business. Register Here