{"id":271552,"date":"2026-04-16T23:03:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T23:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/271552\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T23:03:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T23:03:08","slug":"california-mexican-chain-accused-of-being-a-ponzi-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/271552\/","title":{"rendered":"California Mexican chain accused of being a ‘ponzi scheme’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chino Hills-based Roll-Em-Up\u00a0Taquitos, which lists 10 locations in Central and Southern California, as well as one each in Las Vegas<\/a>, Houston, Knoxville and La Vista, Nebraska, on its website, is facing lawsuits from disgruntled franchisees, one of which accused the chain of operating as a \u201cponzi scheme.\u201d Additionally, the chain\u2019s CEO and founder, Ryan Usrey, is being sued for allegedly failing to make payments on a car that he purchased in the company\u2019s name \u2014 a $415,000\u00a0Ferrari<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The fast-casual Mexican chain, which was founded in 2019 and began offering franchising opportunities in 2021, is up against multiple allegations. In 2024, New Mexico franchisees FMP Ventures and Reserve Industries filed a lawsuit against Roll-Em-Up Taquitos, in which they accused the company of breach of contract for failing to make payments on the rights to their franchise and instead selling it to a different business.\u00a0Roll-Em-Up countersued, alleging that the franchisees had failed to operate the business properly and allowed drugs\u00a0to be sold at the location.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s just the tip of the taquito iceberg: In 2025, another group of franchisees filed a lawsuit to the Superior Court of California, Riverside County<\/a>, accusing the company of being a \u201cPonzi scheme masked in the guise of a restaurant franchise operation\u201d that used money from franchisees to fund the parent company and recruit additional franchisees. It also stated that the company \u201cgave fraudulently inflated performance numbers\u201d to attract prospective franchisees.<\/p>\n

The quality of the product sold \u2014 the \u201cMama Karen\u2019s\u201d taquitos, which the plaintiffs said had been promised to be \u201chigh quality\u201d and delivered daily \u2014 was also called into question.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaintiffs were consistently supplied with\u00a0taquitos that were clearly frozen from questionable supplies,\u201d the complaint stated. \u201cFurther, plaintiffs are informed and believe and therefore allege that one or more of the Corporate Stores were being supplied with taquitos that were not being made at a \u2018proprietary kitchen\u2019 but instead were being made at a personal residence without any quality control, inspection, or oversight.\u201d<\/p>\n

The complaint also detailed a lack of marketing or advertising support for franchisees and alleged that franchisees had to pay royalties and other fees to the company.<\/p>\n

On April 13,\u00a0Roll-Em-Up Taquitos spokesperson Amy Levy disputed the claims against the business.<\/p>\n

\u201cRoll Em Up\u00a0Taquitos is a legitimate restaurant brand,\u201d Levy said, according to Restaurant Business<\/a>. \u201cIt is not a Ponzi scheme. It has real operating locations, customers and revenue, and expanded into franchising only after there was strong demand and interest from prospective operators.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Levy stated that the franchisees who filed the complaint were poor operators and had been sent cease-and-desist letters. She also said that the move to frozen taquitos was at the request of franchisees and that the company has returned to making them fresh daily. SFGATE reached out to Roll-Em-Up Taquitos for comment but did not hear back in time for publication.<\/p>\n

These ongoing disputes aren\u2019t where the legal troubles for the company end: According to a lawsuit filed in September 2024 in the U.S. District Court for Southern California, founder\u00a0Usrey and Roll Em Up Franchise Group LLC purchased a 2020 Ferrari F8 Tributo in May 2022. According to the lawsuit, Usrey made his last monthly payment of $4,211.60 on the car in May 2024. According to Ferrari, he still owed $313,898.95 on the vehicle, along with fees accrued by the default in payments \u2014 and had not responded to demands that he surrender the car.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chino Hills-based Roll-Em-Up\u00a0Taquitos, which lists 10 locations in Central and Southern California, as well as one each in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271553,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,4991,2008,106625],"class_list":["post-271552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-sfgfood","tag-sfgla","tag-sfglafood"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}