CA Ventures Lawsuit: Fraud Claims, Foreclosures, and Equity Suits

CA Ventures, the Chicago real estate firm founded by CEO Tom Scott, is defending a stack of lawsuits that include a $14 million investor-fraud case in Cook County, a $10 million debt-default claim from Peninsula Investments, a fraud action by Canadian partner QuadReal Property Group, and foreclosure suits from at least five lenders across Chicago, Houston, and New York. A Cook County judge cleared the fraud case to proceed in July 2025, and none of the major disputes has settled.

The $14 Million Investor Fraud Case

The centerpiece action was filed in Cook County, Illinois, in October 2024 by TCP GP Fund I Aggregator, an entity tied to Christ Kamberos Jr., an heir to the Treasure Island grocery chain. The complaint alleges that Scott and John Diedrich, then Global Head of Investments, solicited roughly $14 million from investors in 2021 and 2022 by representing that the capital would fund specific industrial development projects.¹ According to the suit, the money was instead used to repay maturing loans the two executives had personally guaranteed, reducing their own exposure.²

The complaint says the executives used the funds to restructure debts owed to Brigade Capital Management, a New York lender, without disclosing that CA Ventures would guarantee the firm’s obligations to Brigade or that its industrial arm would pledge assets as collateral. When Brigade discovered the diversion, it declared the loan in default and demanded immediate payment. As of March 2024, that debt reportedly remained unpaid.¹ The plaintiffs further allege that Scott and Diedrich used “shoddy accounting practices” to dilute investor equity and pledged additional assets to Brigade after the default.²

In July 2025, Cook County Judge Anthony Swanagan denied Scott’s motion to dismiss, finding that the plaintiffs had brought “strong contractual claims” and “actionable fraud claims.” The case moves into discovery.³ Scott’s attorney, David Rammelt, has denied the fraud allegations, calling them a “garden variety breach of contract claim” and blaming “apocalyptic market forces.” The defense has said it will seek summary judgment before trial.¹

Peninsula Investments Debt Suit

In July 2025, Peninsula Investments Group filed a separate complaint alleging that CA Senior Living, a CA Ventures entity, defaulted on more than $10 million in debt originating from an $8.1 million loan in 2021. Peninsula claims the company failed to make monthly interest payments and did not assign construction project proceeds that were supposed to service the debt.³ Together with the Kamberos fraud case, active claims against Scott and his companies total roughly $24 million.

QuadReal’s Fraud Claim Over the LaSalle Lease

QuadReal Property Group, a Canadian investor, bought a 50 percent stake in CA Ventures’ student housing business in 2020 for about $100 million and later sued, alleging that CA Ventures concealed during negotiations that the student housing unit would guarantee a 70,000-square-foot office lease at 448 North LaSalle Street in Chicago. The lease was at what QuadReal describes as above-market rates, in a building where Scott held a personal ownership interest.⁴

CA Ventures responded in an April 2024 motion to dismiss, arguing that QuadReal was told about the lease obligation and now regrets the commitment because of hybrid work. It called QuadReal’s complaint “bloated with superfluous and irrelevant allegations.”⁴ As of January 2025, the case was still open.⁵ Separately, in September 2023 QuadReal acquired CA Ventures’ remaining 50 percent stake in the student housing portfolio, which covered more than 20,000 beds across 42 properties.⁶

Lender Foreclosures and Default Suits

Multiple lenders have sued CA Ventures affiliates over defaults on loans secured by properties in several states.

ACORE Capital, a California lender, foreclosed on Anthology of Tanglewood, a 230-unit senior living facility at 504 Bering Drive in Houston, after CA Ventures defaulted on a $72.1 million loan. ACORE took the property at a foreclosure auction in March 2024.⁷
LoanCore Capital filed a foreclosure suit over $32 million in debt on 1900 West Lawrence Avenue in Chicago, a 59-unit apartment building converted from a former Sears store. CA Ventures had not made monthly debt service payments since November 2023.⁸
Northbrook Bank & Trust filed two foreclosure suits against CA Ventures affiliates over a 25-unit apartment complex at 2247 W. Lawrence Avenue and a vacant development site at 750 W. North Avenue in Chicago.⁹
Old Second National Bank sued in June 2024 to collect on an $8 million personal guarantee tied to a 2018 loan originally totaling $10.7 million, after CA Ventures sold the collateral at 3015 North Southport Avenue for less than $1.5 million.¹⁰
Spring Tower LLC sued for roughly $680,000 in unpaid principal and interest on a $2.2 million loan after CA Ventures made a partial $2 million payment in October 2023 and then stopped paying.¹¹

The Former COO’s Equity Suit

Predating the current wave, former COO John Joseph Smith IV sued Scott in Delaware’s Court of Chancery in 2020. Smith, who worked at the firm for 13 years, alleged that Scott fired him without legitimate cause and then reclassified the termination as “for cause” to trigger contractual forfeiture of his equity in 12 CA Ventures subsidiaries, which Smith valued at up to $70 million.¹² He said the company fabricated performance deficiencies and tried to buy him out for $2 million shortly before firing him.

In April 2021, Vice Chancellor Slights dismissed claims for breach of fiduciary duty and defamation but allowed claims for breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, conversion, and violations of the Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act to proceed. The court found it “reasonably conceivable” that the defendants had manufactured grounds for termination to seize Smith’s equity in bad faith.¹³ A trial was set for November 2023.⁶

Industrial Spinoff Stalled by a Judgment

A separate former-executive claim has frozen CA Ventures’ effort to spin off its industrial arm, Centris, to Monarch Alternative Capital and Davidson Kempner in a deal that included a planned $350 million capital injection and a rebrand as “Outrigger Industrial.” Former CIO Nishant Bakaya, who held the role from 2017 to 2021, won a $5.8 million judgment against the company after alleging it missed installments on his exit agreement.¹⁴ Michael Podboy, formerly head of Centris, intervened to argue that Bakaya’s payout should wait until he and other former Centris employees received their own separation payments. A court paused the transition while the competing claims were resolved.¹⁵

European Liquidation and Creditor Exposure

The lawsuits sit against a backdrop of asset losses abroad. CA Ventures’ European student housing arm, which managed 7,000 beds and held planning permissions for 5,000 more, entered creditors’ voluntary liquidation in late 2024 after a proposed $101 million rescue from Bahrain-based GFH Financial Group collapsed. GFH signed a term sheet in summer 2024 but walked away citing “valuation declines and residual liabilities.” Diedrich had resigned from CA Ventures in June 2024 specifically to focus on closing the deal.¹⁶¹⁷

The European vehicle, CAVEE, carried aggregate liabilities above £30 million (roughly $38 million), including more than £10 million in unpaid vendor and supplier payments and over £20 million in unsecured third-party debt. Its nine remaining assets were expected to generate less than £10 million in net value, meaning investors were unlikely to receive any distributions.¹⁸

Where the Cases Stand

As of mid-2025, the Kamberos fraud case is in discovery after surviving dismissal. The Peninsula Investments debt claim is active. The QuadReal fraud dispute over the LaSalle lease remains open with no settlement. Lender foreclosure suits from ACORE, LoanCore, Northbrook Bank & Trust, Old Second National Bank, and Spring Tower are working through their respective courts, and ACORE has already taken the Houston senior living asset at auction. The industrial-platform spinoff is on hold behind the Bakaya judgment and the Podboy intervention. CA Ventures has said it is evaluating a broader restructuring for some remaining investment vehicles, and no bankruptcy filing has been publicly reported.¹⁸

1
Bisnow. Investors Sue CA Ventures Alleging Execs Defrauded Them
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The Real Deal. CA Ventures Execs Defrauded Investors, Lawsuit Alleges
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The Real Deal. Lawsuits Advance Against CA Ventures With $24 Million Claims
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The Real Deal. CA Ventures Strikes Back Against QuadReal’s Fraud Claim
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The Real Deal. QuadReal Lists Student Housing Complex With Rents on the Rise
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The Real Deal. QuadReal Takes Over CA Ventures Student Housing Unit
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The Real Deal. Acore Forecloses on CA Ventures Senior Housing in Houston
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The Real Deal. LoanCore Sues for $32 Million Foreclosure of Converted Sears
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Bisnow. CA Ventures Smacked With 2 New Lawsuits, Behind in $32M Debt on Another Property
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The Real Deal. Lender Sues CA Ventures for $8M Guarantee on Multifamily Assets
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Bisnow. Lender Sues CA Ventures, Alleges Loan Default, Outstanding Payments
12
Morris James LLP. Smith v. Scott, C.A. No. 2020-0263-JRS
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Midpage. John Joseph Smith, IV v. Thomas M. Scott
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The Real Deal. Lawsuit Stalls Takeover of CA Ventures Industrial Platform
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Bisnow. Lawsuit Against CA Ventures Pauses Investor Takeover of Company’s Industrial Platform
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Urban Living News. CA Ventures Liquidates European Student Business
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The Real Deal. CA Ventures European Student Housing Business Closes
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Bisnow. CA Ventures Begins Voluntary Liquidation of Its European Arm