The Trial Balance is CFO.com’s weekly preview of stories, stats and events to help you prepare.
Part 1 — Major retailers tied to $100M+ ponzi scheme, SEC says
The founders of Retail Ecommerce Ventures, the company that acquired the rights to legacy retail brands like RadioShack, Dressbarn, Modell’s Sporting Goods and Pier 1 Imports, have been charged with orchestrating a $112 million Ponzi scheme, according to a complaint filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission in the Southern District of Florida on September 23, 2025.
The feds allege that social media influencer Tai Lopez and technology entrepreneur Alex Mehr, who are both co-founders of REV, along with chief operating officer Maya Burkenroad, raised the money from hundreds of investors between April 2020 and November 2022 through fraudulent securities offerings tied to eight distressed retail brands that REV acquired.
E-commerce software platform Brahms and retailers Dressbarn, Franklin Mint, Linens ‘N Things and Modell’s were acquired in 2020, followed by Pier 1 Imports, RadioShack and Stein Mart between 2021 and 2022, according to the SEC. Allegedly, investors were offered unsecured notes with annualized returns of up to 25% and equity stakes with monthly dividends over 2%. They were told their money would be invested in a specific company and backed by the performance of that entity.
REV pitched investors on an aggressive turnaround strategy. After acquiring bankrupt retail brands with widespread name recognition, the company converted them into online-only businesses and promised high returns to investors as REV said the companies it was acquiring generated strong cash flow.
The SEC says in reality, none of the portfolio companies were profitable. To keep up the appearance of success, the defendants allegedly paid existing investors using new investor funds, merchant cash advances, outside loans and intercompany transfers. At least $5.9 million in investor returns were funded in this Ponzi-like fashion, according to the complaint. The SEC also claims that Lopez and Mehr misappropriated roughly $16 million for personal use.
Internal financial statements show Dressbarn lost $13.7 million in 2020 and $10.7 million in 2021, while Stein Mart posted net losses of $1.7 million and $5.7 million over the same period. Yet in investor communications, Lopez described the brands as “on fire” with “strong cash flow.” Investors were assured the companies had never missed a payment. According to the SEC, those claims were false as early as 2022, when complaints began surfacing about missed interest payments.
The defendants also misrepresented the credentials of their leadership team. REV’s website claimed Burkenroad had over a decade of experience managing multi-million-dollar companies. In reality, her background included work as a preschool substitute teacher, a radio promoter and an assistant to Lopez at a previous venture.
One thing that jumps out in the SEC complaint is who’s not there — a CFO. There’s no mention of anyone in a finance leadership role at REV or its portfolio companies. Instead, the founders and Burkenroad handled the money themselves, deciding how to move cash between entities and which investors got paid.
Anyone working in corporate finance knows that’s a glaring red flag. In any complex M&A business model like REV’s, a CFO is usually the guardrail on reporting and capital flows. Without that role, REV’s financial power likely sat with a tight inner circle of Lopez, Mehr and Burkenroad, making it easier for misleading claims to be accepted as fact and harder for tough questions to be asked.
Part 2 — This week
Here’s a list of important market events slated for the week ahead.
Monday, Sept. 29
- Speeches from Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller, Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack and Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic
Tuesday, Sept. 30
- Speeches from Federal Reserve Vice Chair Philip Jefferson and Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee
- Chicago Business Barometer (PMI), Sept.
- Job openings, Aug.
- Consumer confidence, Sept.
Wednesday, Oct. 1
- ADP employment, Sept.
- Construction spending, Aug.
- S&P final U.S. manufacturing PMI, Sept.
- ISM manufacturing, Sept.
Thursday, Oct. 2
- Initial jobless claims, week ending Sept. 27
- Factory orders, Aug.
- Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan’s speech
Friday, Oct. 3
- U.S. employment report, Sept.
- U.S. unemployment rate, Sept.
- U.S. hourly wages, Sept.
- S&P final U.S. services PMI, Sept.
- ISM services, Sept.
- Federal Reserve Vice Chair Philip Jefferson’s speech
Part 3 — Weekly listen: Global Crossing Airlines CFO Ryan Goepel on price discipline and flying to the gaps
On the Time on Wing podcast, Global Crossing Airlines President and CFO Ryan Goepel breaks down why disciplined aircraft sourcing is make-or-break for aviation business models. “If in aviation you have the right metal at the wrong price, I don’t care how good your business model is, you’re going to fail,” he said. The company targets older aircraft that can be flown at lower utilization rates, allowing it to keep lease costs down and match the right asset to the right mission.
Goepel described Global X’s growth from a two-plane startup in 2021 to an 18-aircraft operation with 800 employees funded by roughly $20 million in equity and $30 million in debt. By focusing on ACMI and charter, the airline avoids ticketing, schedule and fuel price risks, instead concentrating on utilization and asset pricing. “Scheduled carriers are the marbles in the fishbowl,” he said. “We’re the water. We go to the gaps.”
On the cargo side, Goepel believes the airline’s early bet on A321 freighters will pay off over the next decade as aging Boeing freighters retire and supply gaps widen. Global X is currently the only narrow-body Airbus cargo operator in North America, positioning itself for what he sees as a 30- to 50-aircraft opportunity if the economics shift. “We placed a bet that this will play out,” he said. “If it does, we’re years ahead.”
