what happened to clayton morris fox & friends
Ex-Fox & Friends co-host Clayton Morris has left the country among more than two dozen lawsuits from investors who say he defrauded them in real estate deals involving backdrop in Indianapolis.
Morris, who previously resided in a $one.4 million dwelling house in New Jersey, has moved with his family to a coastal resort town Portugal, according to his wife's Facebook post.
In an email to IndyStar, Morris's wife and business organisation partner, onetime MSNBC anchor Natali Morris, said they plan to continue fighting the lawsuits from abroad. They have denied responsibility for investor losses, instead blaming their Indianapolis business organization partner Bert Whalen and his company, Oceanpointe.
Accusations of fraud:Investors say ex-'Trick & Friends' host turned them into unwitting slumlords
Tenants suffer:Renters lived 'horrible.' Morris business partner lived large. The government helped.
"We take and continued to take responsibility for all of our legal challenges that came from our human relationship with Oceanpointe. We have answered all of our chaser general requests in all states. Nosotros have answered all lawsuits," Natali Morris said.
"We have non run from anything," she added. "We continue to show upwardly for this until the last lawsuit is dismissed and it is clear that we neither had the coin from Oceanpointe investors nor did we defraud anyone."
But investors and their attorneys expressed concern well-nigh the move. They worry it could make it more difficult to serve Morris with legal notices and could complicate efforts to recollect any damages if a judge finds in their favor.
"In my clients' stance, innocent people don't flee the country," said Jynell Berkshire, an Indianapolis real estate attorney who is representing several investors.
No criminal charges take been brought against Morris or Whalen. Local, country and federal law enforcement agencies in Indiana and New Jersey declined to confirm or deny any investigation.
In a lengthy post Th on her website, Natali Morris said the legal problems, antagonism from investors and negative news coverage drove the family's conclusion to leave the country.
"I am not one of those who rejects America," she wrote. "We had a good life there. Only my hubby and I have had a hard few years in our business and this collective soul challenge forced u.s.a. to question everything."
She said her husband was unfairly blamed because of his "residual 'fame' from his quondam career as a news anchor."
"But America is polarized and if you tin can write a headline about a Fox News guy doing something wrong, it volition get clicked on in order to reinforce people's conviction bias, i manner or another," she wrote.
She said her husband has taken accusations and media coverage specially hard.
"Watching him endure this has felt similar what I would imagine it is like to watch him suffer chemotherapy," she said. "I wish I could have it from him. I wish I could fix information technology. I wish information technology were me instead. I comport a pain with me knowing that he is in pain and it is with me always. His health began to suffer. He began to withdraw emotionally and it was hard on our family. Nosotros both knew that we had to brand a change if nosotros wanted to survive."
IndyStar reported in March that investors were accusing Morris of running a Ponzi scheme with Whalen's help. Together they sold at least 700 homes in some of Indianapolis's almost troubled neighborhoods.
Investors suing Morris — mostly out-of-state real manor novices — claim he sold them houses with a promise to rehab them, detect tenants and manage the backdrop. All they had to do, co-ordinate to a video on his pop YouTube channel, was sit back and collect the hire checks.
Only those rehabs didn't happen or were superficial, the investors claim. They accuse Morris and Whalen of covering their tracks by providing fake leases and sending rent checks fifty-fifty though the properties were vacant. Many of the investors say they only discovered the truth when they began receiving code violations and condemnation notices from the city.
Some investors say the scheme turned them into unwitting slumlords. An IndyStar investigation published last month found tenants who said they suffered through dangerous and disgusting weather condition in properties bought, sold or managed by Whalen's companies.
Morris has denied the fraud allegations, proverb he merely referred investors to Whalen. He claimed he was not responsible for managing the backdrop and has said he was sickened to learn of tenants living in apple-polishing conditions.
Whalen has also denied any wrongdoing.
Jennifer Drobac, a professor at the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law, said moving out of the U.S. does not absolve a defendant in a lawsuit of their legal responsibleness.
Simply it also is true that Morris does not take to return to the land to defend himself if he has an attorney here representing him.
However, if he just tried to ignore a lawsuit and not engage local counsel, she said the plaintiff could win a default judgment against him.
And because these are ceremonious cases, rather than criminal, a court would not accept action to extradite a defendant to bring them to trial.
Contact Tim Evans at 317-444-6204 or tim.evans@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter: @starwatchtim.
Contact IndyStar reporter Tony Cook at 317-444-6081 or tony.cook@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter: @IndyStarTony.
Source: https://www.indystar.com/story/news/2019/07/12/ex-fox-friends-host-clayton-morris-leaves-country-for-portugal-amid-fraud-allegations/1705521001/
0 Response to "what happened to clayton morris fox & friends"
Post a Comment