USC Marshall Students Fall Victim to Investment Fraud
USC Adjunct Charged with Drawing Students into Investment Fraud
It looks like some USC Marshall students have gotten a stinging lesson about the risks of real estate investments – and that they got it the hard way.
Barry Landreth, a 2001 grad of Marshall's master's program in real estate development and a part-time instructor at Marshall, was arrested by the FBI on March 24 and charged with investment fraud. The scam, described as a Ponzi scheme, reportedly netted him over $1.5 million. The victims include some of Landreth's students and their family members.
Landreth told his victims that he would use their money to purchase land in Chicago and Las Vegas that would be resold at a large profit within 4 to 6 weeks. In reality, he deposited investors' money to his personal account, using a good part of it to buy and care for show jumping horses.
Landreth used his classes to recruit unwitting students as sales people. He promised students a salary in addition to the profits on their own investments. According to Inside Higher Education, court documents state that some students invested as much as $100,000 of their own and their families' money.
Students grew suspicious when they received neither the promised salaries nor the investment returns. They complained to authorities, who began investigating Landreth last fall.
USC and the Marshall School have no comment on the story at this point except to say that Landreth had been teaching this semester and was put on administrative leave following news of his arrest.
It looks like some USC Marshall students have gotten a stinging lesson about the risks of real estate investments – and that they got it the hard way.
Barry Landreth, a 2001 grad of Marshall's master's program in real estate development and a part-time instructor at Marshall, was arrested by the FBI on March 24 and charged with investment fraud. The scam, described as a Ponzi scheme, reportedly netted him over $1.5 million. The victims include some of Landreth's students and their family members.
Landreth told his victims that he would use their money to purchase land in Chicago and Las Vegas that would be resold at a large profit within 4 to 6 weeks. In reality, he deposited investors' money to his personal account, using a good part of it to buy and care for show jumping horses.
Landreth used his classes to recruit unwitting students as sales people. He promised students a salary in addition to the profits on their own investments. According to Inside Higher Education, court documents state that some students invested as much as $100,000 of their own and their families' money.
Students grew suspicious when they received neither the promised salaries nor the investment returns. They complained to authorities, who began investigating Landreth last fall.
USC and the Marshall School have no comment on the story at this point except to say that Landreth had been teaching this semester and was put on administrative leave following news of his arrest.
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