The Arizona Corporation Commission’s Securities Division has issued a temporary cease and desist order against respondents Jad Morris of Peoria, Financial Leverage LLC, IQBiz Financial LLC, and IQBiz Funding, LLC to stop fraudulently selling unregistered investments.
In its notice, the Securities Division alleges that from on or about January 2019 through the present, at least four people have invested approximately $428,000 into the unregistered investment program. Through an online credit platform that Morris was licensed to promote, Morris allegedly gained a list of people seeking credit and used this knowledge to reach out to clients and convince them to leverage their credit in order to invest with him and his companies.
After convincing them to invest, Morris would allegedly receive wire transfers from investors or directly charge their credit cards. Morris allegedly never disclosed to the investors the substantial risk of paying more in interest on their debt that they could earn in returns on their investments with him.
Morris has allegedly provided falsified invoices to investors for various business consulting services, which Morris claimed was so investors could use the invoices for tax write offs. Contrary to the invoices sent to investors, the Securities Division alleges the credit card charges were actually for investments with Morris. When investors questioned Morris about their funds, he would allegedly tell them he was close to “winning” but needed more money and used high pressure tactics to encourage them to take on more debt in order to give him more funds.
Some investors are over the age of 60, and at least one of those investors may be a vulnerable adult.