South Florida woman attempting to get money back from investment deal contacts CBS News Miami

Jessica Gipson said she had been saving up for years so she could start investing in real estate. She said she met a man named Alex Moore through a mutual friend last year, and she said he told her of an investment opportunity.

"I always wanted to invest it, I just didn't know how to go about it," Gipson said.

Gipson said that after talking with him for a few weeks, he showed her a contract which said if she puts down $25,000, she would get a $250,000 bonus check, and would then get 40 weekly performance checks.

CBS News Miami looked at the contract, and it doesn't specify what kind of investment Gipson got into. CBS News Miami asked Gipson if the deal felt too good to be true.

 "Absolutely," Gipson said. "He felt very trustworthy. We had spent some time together. It's not like I had met someone and we were just going off of a whim."

Gipson said she signed the contract on January 5 of last year. Moore's name and countersignature are on the document.

Gipson said she was only able to come up with $21,000, but she said Moore accepted that anyway.

The contract said she was owed her $250,000 bonus on Jan. 17, 2025, but nearly a year later, she said she hasn't been paid a dime.

"Every excuse in the book," Gipson said. "Every single day until March there was a different excuse of, the money's backed up. Or the deal didn't go through or the person who was supposed to pay on the deal didn't go through."

Gipson eventually sent Moore a letter of withdrawal. She then sent a demand letter, and then got a lawyer to send another demand letter. She said she didn't get her money back.

Gipson filed a police report, but says Miami police couldn't help her because it was a civil matter. So she came to CBS News Miami.

"Really just my last resort of some kind of closure. Some kind of justification. Some kind of accountability," Gipson said.

CBS News Miami reached out to Moore, and asked if he'd give Gipson her money back. In response, Moore told CBS News Miami not to run the story, and to stop contacting him. He also sent CBS News Miami a copy of Gipson's withdrawal letter that we already had.

"It's not a professionally written contract," said Raul Gastesi, an attorney.

CBS News Miami ran the contract by Gastesi.

"The rate of returns are outlandish," he said. "No one can provide those rates of returns. My clients have come to me with some thing like this and I've said never in your right mind should you do this deal," Gastesi said.

Gastesi said before anyone contributes to an investment, he'd recommend opening up the books on the investment first.

"Tax returns. Bank deposits. Profit and loss statements, balance sheets. Ask your accountant to review those before you do the deal," Gastesi said. "Once you review them then you bring that to a lawyer."

Gipson said she doesn't expect to get her money back, and said her only takeaway from this is that it's an expensive learning experience.

"Do your due diligence. Don't trust people off of a whim. Don't trust people off of their character," Gipson said.

Gastesi said that the size of the contract was also a big red flag because of how it was just one page. He said contracts for an investment this size would be dozens of pages long. 

Gastesi said the contract is short, but he believes it is still enforceable.