Forge Services., a wholly owned subsidiary of Forge Global has been served with a lawsuit for fraud in the Superior Court of the State of California for the County of San Mateo.
The lawsuit was filed by Todd Yancey, former Advisor to IRA Services, now known as Forge Services. Mr. Yancey alleges a number of causes of action in the complaint including breach of fiduciary duties, negligent misrepresentation, breach of agreement, fraud, unfair and unlawful business practices, and unjust enrichment arising out of the Defendant’s, “unlawful pattern and practice of misrepresentation, misappropriation, and conversion of the Plaintiff’s partnership interest in the Investor Cloud Platform or ISCP.
Mr. Yancey seeks damages against Forge Services in an amount no less than $10,375,000 plus pre-judgment interest and all other relief as the Court deems appropriate.
In 2015, IRA Services provided manual administration and custody services to just over 40,000 accounts and $4 billion in assets under custody. Mr. Yancey brought along the vision, design, and architecture of his Investment Custody Platform APIs and Database Model which enabled IRA Services to rapidly build the ISCP and dramatically scale and grow their administrative and custodial services business for individuals, advisors, and institutions. IRA Services became the first self-directed custodian to build a fully automated digital platform, rapidly scaling to over 600,000 new accounts, with over $11 billion in assets under custody.
The lawsuit against Forge Services comes after news of their acquisition by Forge Global, formerly known as Equidate. Forge Global announced plans to acquire IRA Services for an estimated $55 million.
