Options Exist for DeepRoot Funds Investor Victims to Recover Their Losses

Stoltmann Law Offices, a Chicago-based securities, investor, and consumer rights law firm has spoken to victims of the DeepRoot Funds scam and continues to investigate claims against third parties to recover these losses. On August 20, 2021, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a complaint against Robert J. Mueller, DeepRoot Funds, LLC, Policy Services, Inc., and several other “relief defendants” alleging that Mueller and DeepRoot abused their roles as investments advisors to the two primary DeepRoot funds; the 575 Fund, LLC and the Growth Runs Deep Fund, LLC. The SEC flat-out alleges that Mueller used these funds as his personal piggy bank, including paying for weddings to wives number 2 and 3, and paying for the divorce from wife number 2.  Investors are likely looking at a total loss of funds invested amounting to nearly $58 million. Because the SEC has already gone after Mueller and the Funds, investors need to look for viable third parties that could have liability for investor losses.

The first and most obvious target for investors here would be the financial or investment advisor that solicited the transactions in the first place.  If your RIA or broker solicited you to invest in DeepRoot, it is almost certain this solicitation constituted a breach of fiduciary duty. RIAs will, with a straight face, ask clients in these situations rhetorically “how were we supposed to know?” Well, the investment advisor with the licenses, training, education, and statutory fiduciary duties to their clients are paid to know.  Whether your advisor is a FINRA registered broker or a Registered Investment Advisor (RIA), they have obligations to understand and know the products they sell to their clients.  On their faces, these DeepRoot Funds were unregistered, private, unproven, and speculative private-investment plays. Right there is enough information to disqualify these funds for investment by almost every retail investor in America.

To put it bluntly, the law obligates fiduciary investment advisors to understand the risks and characteristics of the investments they offer to their clients. Failing to do so constitutes a breach of a fundamental and basic duty. Investment advisors can be liable to their clients for this fundamental breach of duty. How are they supposed to know? They are paid to know and they are licensed professionals who are obligated to know whether the fund that are recommending uses investor funds to legitimately invest, or, as with DeepRoot, used investor funds to pay for divorces, a wedding, amongst other abuses.

There could be other targets here too. To the extent there were accounting firms auditing DeepRoot’s financials, they should have known how investor proceeds were being abused. Other potential targets include banks used by DeepRoot, law firms, and any other professionals employed to perform services for DeepRoot and their investors.  Stoltmann Law Offices has years of experience evaluating and prosecuting claims on behalf of investors against myriad defendants. We are a contingency fee firm and encourage DeepRoot investors to call our office at 312-332-4200 for a free, no obligation initial consultation with a securities lawyer.