Trump Scores Rare Legal Win With Pyramid Scheme Lawsuit
Donald Trump may be drowning in legal despair, but he eked out a victory on Friday when a federal judge tossed out a New York case accusing him of suckering investors into a multi-level marketing scheme.
With the real estate tycoon’s long history of cheating unsuspecting marks—with a scammy Trump University, unfulfilled donations to veterans, and many more—it’s easy to forget the one involving a gadget he hawked on TV that turned out to be a dud.
This scandal revolves around the way Trump and his oldest children—Don Jr., Ivanka, and Eric—used their roles as judges on Celebrity Apprentice to feature a promising investment that glittered like fool’s gold: the seemingly high-tech new “Iris 5000” video chatting phone. Years later, four aggrieved entrepreneurs sued the family in 2018, saying the Trumps’ endorsements duped them into throwing money at what turned out to be a multi-level marketing company facing financial turmoil.