A small group of retirees paid a combined $6.2 million last year for ownership stakes in a fancy event-rental space in Carmel, Indiana, expecting it would generate double-digit returns and qualify them for a tax break used by thousands of Americans to defer capital gains on real estate.
Instead, they now own a vacant lot generating no income, and the money appears to be gone. In a federal lawsuit filed in April, most of the investors claim they were duped in a vast fraud involving financial advisers, a property broker and what seemed to be a fast-expanding company called Noah Corp.