More than 5,000 investors are waiting to see if they recover any of their investment, which ranges from $1,000 to $1 million through Reg A and Reg D offerings for this non-traded REIT. The company also has roughly 1,500 creditors. A meeting of creditors will be held on April 8, 2026. RAD also has over 300 asset properties, primarily in Philadelphia.
The company filed its Chapter 11 petition on Sunday in a Florida federal court with the intent to reduce a further reduction in its real estate portfolio. It claims assets and liabilities between $50 million and $100 million. “While the debtors pre-petition management strenuously disagrees with this characterization, the accusation received substantial press coverage and crippled the debtors’ ability to operate their businesses,” RAD said in its declaration.
RAD Claims Publicity Adds To Its Problems
The problems facing RAD Diversified REIT were exacerbated by considerable publicity. The first was from the US Securities and Exchange Commission declared its offering statement as “abandoned.” This inhibited the company’s ability to raise new capital.
In a news release in July of 2025, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said RAD “appears to be a Ponzi scheme, and with several individuals claiming they’ve been exploited, we are investigating to ensure Floridians are not being deceived by greedy fraudsters.”
RAD’s founders Mendenhall and Vaughn were also served with an eviction notice by RAD’s landlord in the Tampa office in May of 2025.
A civil lawsuit filed in August against RAD by talk-show host Buck Sexton has also brought additional scrutiny to the company as well as Mendenhall and Vaughn. Sexton attended a RAD conference as a paid speaker, contributed over $100,000 to the company, and allowed his name to be used in marketing for the REIT through his national radio show. In his lawsuit, Sexton states that he was misled by RAD, defrauded, and the company failed in providing “direct access to undervalued real estate investments.” Although RAD moved to dismiss, the case is ongoing.
Additionally, Forbes published an in-depth article on RAD in December of 2025 that included first-person accounts of former employees and several investors, including one who later joined the board of directors and began looking into the company’s financial dealings. When he began asking questions, he was locked out of the accounts and removed from the board.
Potential Third Party Securities Fraud Claims
Mendenhall and Vaughn also faced scrutiny when they appeared on a show called Going Public that is streamed exclusively on X (formerly Twitter) that allows viewers to click to invest in startups featured on the show in real time.
The pair were only on the show as guest advisors/mentors during the third season, not as issuers. Ultimately, the finale was pulled at the last minute after an investigation by Barron’s that exposed RAD Diversified REIT’s investigations by both state and local regulators into the company’s practices. The show finally aired on June 24, 2025, with Mendenhall briefly appearing to announce that he was stepping down as CEO of his company OmniCo, with his brother-in-law taking over.
The producers are now reconsidering their vetting process for guests. However, there are currently no plans for season four. The show’s credibility suffered considerable damage from Mendenhall and Vaughn’s appearance, and for the “click to invest” model that could potentially expose investors to high-risk ventures or startups that were not properly vetted prior to the broadcast.
The case is In re: RAD Diversified REIT Inc., case number 8:26-bk-01636, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Florida.
Did You Invest With Brandon “Dutch” Mendenhall, Amy Vaughn, or RAD Diversified REIT?
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