On May 27, 2022, Plaintiff Melanie E. Damian, in her capacity as the Court-Appointed Receiver for Today’s Growth Consultant, Inc. d/b/a The Income Store (“TGC”) (the “Receiver”) filed a complaint against Defendant SmithAmundsen, LLC (“Defendant”) in the Northern District of Illinois seeking damages, restitution, interest, and costs. Specifically, the complaint alleges two claims for legal malpractice and aiding and abetting breach of fiduciary duty.
This action stems from a prior action filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) against TGC and its founder, Kenneth D. Courtright, III (“Courtright”), wherein the SEC alleged TGC and Courtright violated federal securities laws and sought civil penalties and injunctive relief to halt their wrongful activity.
We previously wrote about PLB Investments LLC et al v. Heartland Bank and Trust Co. et al., a related case initiated by various defrauded investors of TGC against two bank defendants concerning TGC’s website services Ponzi scheme.
In PLB Investments, investors brought a putative class action against defendants alleging that the financial institutions violated the Illinois Fiduciary Obligations Act (“FOA”) and aided and abetted TGC’s Ponzi scheme. As more fully discussed in our prior article, TGC solicited investors to enter into Agreements, wherein the investors agreed to provide up-front and ongoing payments for TGC to build, acquire, and monetize online websites. …
