A quiet corner of Orono is now linked to one of the biggest alleged financial frauds Minnesota has seen in years, with a civil lawsuit claiming a local man stole more than $100 million from lenders while posing as a workers' comp settlement funder. The suit says he pitched himself as the guy who could get injured workers their money early, in lump sums, and then allegedly used investor cash to cover those advances.
Plaintiffs Westwind Capital and Apricity Capital filed the complaint on Jan. 16, 2026, and a judge swiftly ordered the freezing of the accused man's assets this week. Court papers identify him as Brett Schraber, who, according to multiple reports, died by suicide the day after the asset-freeze order was entered.
According to KARE 11, the complaint describes a sprawling web of companies that plaintiffs say helped siphon and obscure investor dollars and now sits at the center of their effort to claw back losses. Westwind and Apricity claim losses topping $100 million and say they only recently realized the supposed settlement-advance deals were not what they had been told. The lawsuit names Westwind Capital and Apricity Capital as lead plaintiffs and asks the court to unwind transactions and recover whatever assets can still be found.
Companies Tied To The Suit
The complaint lists dozens of entities, and plaintiffs say many of them trace back to businesses that publicly operated as check-cashing or short-term lending shops. The About section on EZ Cash lists Brett Schraber as a founder and highlights services such as check cashing and small-dollar loans, which the suit says were folded into the alleged network. That broad corporate footprint, plaintiffs claim, helped obscure where investor funds were ultimately routed.
How The Scheme Allegedly Worked
The complaint, as detailed by KARE 11, says Schraber told injured workers he could give them access to their workers' comp settlements early, as a lump sum, in exchange for receiving the settlement proceeds later. Investor money, according to the suit, was then used to fund those advances.
Plaintiffs allege Schraber also claimed to have ties to local workers' comp law firms, reassuring both claimants and lenders while routing cash through a tangle of LLCs and corporate accounts. Those tactics, the complaint says, left lenders exposed when the promised settlement recoveries never came through.
Industry Context: Early-Funding Lenders
Advances against pending workers' comp awards are a niche but legitimate financial product in Minnesota, and companies actively market the service to injured workers and their attorneys. Apricity Capital, one of the plaintiffs, promotes itself as a local partner in that kind of settlement funding, which helps explain why lenders in this space would be hit hard if a counterparty misrepresented deals.
In the current case, the plaintiffs are pursuing civil remedies only, asking the court to unwind transactions and reclaim assets. The asset freeze is designed to lock down what is left while lawyers and forensic accountants try to trace the money.
Legal Fallout And Next Steps
The lawsuit zeroes in on disgorgement and clawbacks, meaning the focus is on pulling money back from wherever it landed. The freeze on Schraber's assets gives plaintiffs time to map out the flow of funds and identify who may have received payouts along the way.
Criminal prosecutors could still decide to open separate investigations, but that would be independent of this private lawsuit and would depend on whether state or federal authorities choose to bring charges. For now, lenders and claimant attorneys are watching the docket closely to see whether any meaningful recovery is possible from the frozen estate or any of the linked businesses.
What To Watch
Upcoming hearings on the asset freeze and follow-up motions are expected to reveal how much money is realistically recoverable and which entities could be held liable. Depending on what those proceedings uncover, the case could ripple beyond a single Orono businessman and prompt broader scrutiny of early-funding practices in the Twin Cities if regulators or prosecutors decide to dig deeper.
