Tai Lopez stood in front of a Lamborghini in his garage, talking about how he values his books more than his car. It was 2015. The ad was everywhere — YouTube pre-rolls, Facebook feeds, memes for months. Love him or hate him, Tai Lopez became one of the most recognizable figures in the “make money online” space practically overnight.
For nearly a decade, he sold courses, masterminds, and the promise that if you followed his framework, you could achieve “the good life.” Millions of people watched. Hundreds of thousands bought.
Then in September 2025, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil lawsuit accusing Tai Lopez and his business partners of running a $112 million Ponzi scheme through their investment company, Retail Ecommerce Ventures.
I’ll be honest — I’ve always found Tai interesting. Say what you want about him, but the man understood marketing better than almost anyone in the online space. He built a massive brand from nothing, and some of his course content genuinely helped people think bigger about their careers.
But the SEC lawsuit is something I can’t ignore, and neither should you. If you’re searching “is Tai Lopez legit” or evaluating his courses in 2026, you need the full picture. So let me give it to you — the good, the bad, and the federal allegations.
Before we go further — if you’re looking for a legitimate, proven way to build an online income without the guru drama, here’s what I actually recommend. No Lamborghinis. No hype. Just a real business model with real results.
Now, the full Tai Lopez story.
Who Is Tai Lopez?
Tai Lopez — full name Taino Adrian Lopez — was born in 1977 in Long Beach, California. He didn’t grow up with advantages. His father spent most of his childhood incarcerated, and Lopez was raised primarily by his mother and grandmother.
He attended North Carolina State University for one semester before deciding traditional education wasn’t for him — a move he’d later frame as a deliberate choice rather than a failure. He’s described working various jobs across the country, including financial services at GE Capital and, by his own account, time volunteering at a leper colony in India.
By the early 2010s, he was building online businesses — primarily dating websites — and positioning himself as a self-improvement mentor. Whatever you think about his methods, the man was driven.
His big break came in 2015.
The “Here in My Garage” Era
The YouTube ad that launched a thousand memes was actually a masterclass in direct-response marketing. Lopez stood in front of a Lamborghini, books in hand, and delivered a pitch for his online course. The ad racked up hundreds of millions of impressions. It became one of the most-viewed ads in YouTube history, spawning countless parodies from major YouTubers including H3H3 Productions.
What most people don’t realize is the economics behind the ad. Lopez was buying YouTube pre-roll ads at scale, spending heavily to drive traffic to a sales page. The revenue from course sales funded more ad spend, which funded more sales. It was a self-reinforcing loop — and it worked phenomenally well. Forbes named him a top influencer in tech and business in 2017. His Instagram grew to 2.9 million followers. His Facebook page hit 6.2 million fans. The podcast — “The Tai Lopez Show” — was pulling 800,000 downloads per month.
The Beverly Hills mansion he filmed from? Most evidence suggests he rented it rather than owned it. The Lamborghini? Likely leased. But honestly, that’s beside the point. Smart marketers use props, that’s not deception, it’s advertising. The real question was always whether the knowledge behind the image was solid.
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And at the time, it seemed like it might be. The machine was running.
The ad drove traffic to a sales page for the “67 Steps” — a course that promised to teach you the 67 steps to becoming a millionaire, drawing on lessons from mentors like Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, and Charlie Munger (none of whom had any affiliation with Lopez).
The 67 Steps cost around $67 and consisted of video lectures from Tai himself. It wasn’t a technical business course — it was motivational and philosophical, covering mindset, decision-making, and general life strategy. Some people found it genuinely valuable. Others called it overpriced YouTube content.
But the 67 Steps was just the beginning. Lopez rapidly expanded into a full course empire.
The Tai Lopez Course Empire
Over the next several years, Lopez launched an ever-growing catalog of online programs. Here’s what he sold:
| Program | Price | What It Teaches |
|---|---|---|
| 67 Steps | ~$67 | Mindset, life philosophy, “the good life” |
| SMMA (Social Media Marketing Agency) | $697–$997 | Starting a social media agency for local businesses |
| Real Estate Investing | $497–$997 | Real estate strategies and deal-finding |
| Knowledge Society | $9.99/month | Access to entrepreneur courses and community |
| MentorBox | ~$7/month | Book summary subscription service |
| Ecom Agency Course | ~$497 | Building an ecommerce agency |
| Bitcoin Crypto Course | Varied | Cryptocurrency investing basics |
| Various Upsells & Masterminds | $2,000–$10,000+ | High-ticket coaching and events |
At his peak, Lopez claimed over 35,000 students in the SMMA course alone. His Trustpilot page carries 163 reviews with mixed but generally positive sentiment for the educational content itself — though several users report difficulty getting refunds or receiving products they paid for.
What the Courses Actually Deliver
I want to be fair here, because the courses and the investment scandal are two separate things.
The SMMA course — now on version 9.0 — is a 4-month program with over 64 hours of video content and 130+ lessons. It teaches the legitimate business model of starting a social media marketing agency for local businesses. Multiple instructors contribute, not just Lopez. The content covers niche selection, client acquisition, Facebook and TikTok ads, AI automation, and agency management. At $697–$997, it’s mid-range for the category.
The 67 Steps is motivational content. If you enjoy listening to someone philosophize about success for 67 days, it delivers what it promises. It won’t teach you a specific skill or business model. For $67, it’s relatively low-risk.
The real estate and ecommerce courses are more surface-level. They cover concepts you can find for free across dozens of YouTube channels and blogs.
– Want a real way to make money online? here’s what I actually recommend –
The Upsell Machine
What most reviews don’t adequately describe is the sales funnel after you purchase any Tai Lopez product. Once you buy the 67 Steps ($67), you’ll be hit with upsells for Knowledge Society ($9.99/month), then pitched on SMMA ($697+), then invited to live events ($1,200+), then offered high-ticket mastermind access ($5,000–$10,000+).
Every email, every follow-up, every piece of “bonus content” is designed to move you up the pricing ladder. This isn’t unique to Tai Lopez — most course creators do this — but his funnel is particularly aggressive. Multiple users report difficulty unsubscribing from email sequences and navigating the refund process.
One Trustpilot reviewer reported purchasing the SMMA course, never receiving access, and being blocked when they tried to contact support. Others describe signing up for what they thought was a one-time purchase only to discover recurring charges on their credit card.
The Credibility Gap
Across the board, the consistent criticism isn’t that the courses are “scams” in the traditional sense — it’s that they’re overpriced for the depth provided, heavily upsold, and Lopez himself hasn’t publicly demonstrated success in the business models he teaches. He’s never shown a portfolio of SMMA clients he’s personally managed, real estate deals he’s personally closed, or ecommerce stores he’s personally scaled.
His documented income comes from selling courses and, later, from investment ventures. Which brings us to the part that changes everything.
Retail Ecommerce Ventures: The $112 Million Ponzi Allegation
In 2019, Tai Lopez co-founded Retail Ecommerce Ventures (REV) with Alex Mehr, who had previously sold the dating app Zoosk. The concept was ambitious: buy bankrupt retail brands at fire-sale prices, shut down the physical stores, and turn them into profitable ecommerce businesses.
REV acquired some genuinely iconic American brands:
| Brand | Acquired |
|---|---|
| Dressbarn | 2020 |
| Linens ‘N Things | 2020 |
| Modell’s Sporting Goods | 2020 |
| Franklin Mint | 2020 |
| Pier 1 Imports | 2021 |
| RadioShack | 2021 |
| Stein Mart | 2022 |
The pitch to investors was seductive: put money into these recognizable brand revivals and receive annualized returns as high as 25%, or monthly dividends of up to 2.083%. Lopez promoted REV in YouTube videos and investor calls, describing the portfolio companies as being “on fire” with “strong cash flow.”
Between April 2020 and November 2022, REV raised approximately $230 million from at least 660 investors — mostly small, individual investors, not institutional funds.
How REV Actually Ran the Brands
Understanding why REV failed isn’t complicated. The strategy — buying bankrupt brand names and converting them to online-only stores — sounds reasonable in a pitch deck. In execution, it was a disaster.
Take RadioShack. REV acquired the brand and immediately tried to reinvent it for Gen Z by filling its social media accounts with crude, sexist, shock-value content. The posts went viral, but marketing experts universally agreed it was the wrong kind of attention. You can’t build an ecommerce electronics brand on meme-bait controversy. The RadioShack website never gained meaningful traction as a retail destination.
Pier 1 Imports had similar problems. The brand’s appeal was always tactile — people walked through physical stores, touched the furniture, smelled the candles. Converting that to an online-only experience stripped away the core value proposition. No amount of branding can replace the in-store experience that made Pier 1 special.
Dressbarn, Modell’s, Stein Mart — same story. The brands had name recognition but no competitive advantage in ecommerce. They were competing against Amazon, Wayfair, Chewy, and thousands of DTC brands with better logistics, better technology, and better customer acquisition strategies.
According to internal financial statements cited in the SEC complaint, Dressbarn lost $13.7 million in 2020 and $10.7 million in 2021. Stein Mart posted net losses of $1.7 million and $5.7 million over the same period. None of the eight portfolio companies ever generated a profit.
Yet in investor communications, Lopez described the brands as being “on fire” with “strong cash flow.” The SEC says those claims were false.
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What the SEC Says Happened
On September 23, 2025, the SEC filed a 31-page civil complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. The allegations are severe.
According to the SEC, none of REV’s portfolio companies ever generated a profit. Internal financial statements showed Dressbarn losing $13.7 million in 2020 and $10.7 million in 2021. Stein Mart posted net losses of $1.7 million and $5.7 million over the same period. Yet investors were told the companies were thriving.
The SEC alleges that to keep up the appearance of success, Lopez and Mehr used new investor money to pay existing investors — the textbook definition of a Ponzi scheme. At least $5.9 million in investor returns were funded this way. The complaint also alleges that $16.1 million in investor funds were misappropriated for personal use by Lopez and Mehr.
One detail from the complaint stands out: REV’s COO, Maya Burkenroad — who is also Tai Lopez’s cousin — was presented to investors as having “over 10 years of experience managing multi-million-dollar companies.” According to the SEC, her actual background included working as a substitute preschool teacher, a radio station promoter, and as Lopez’s personal assistant.
The Victims
The human cost makes this concrete. The Wall Street Journal reported on several investors caught in the collapse. An Illinois grandfather named Sean Murphy invested $175,000 — money set aside for his sons’ college education. He received a Pier 1 gift card worth $10,000 and roughly $1,000 monthly for two years before payments stopped. Nelson Rowe, an 82-year-old retired real estate broker from Louisiana, lost $300,000. A construction sales executive named Joseph Bertao invested $350,000 after being told, in his account, to give “as much money as you can” because “these deals are poppin’ off.”
Where It Stands Now
As of February 2026, the SEC lawsuit is civil — not criminal. No criminal charges have been filed against Lopez. However, the FBI has confirmed it is conducting a criminal investigation and has been interviewing affected investors. Settlement talks between the defendants and the SEC are underway.
REV’s investors have formed their own organization and gained control of the acquired retail brands. Lopez, Mehr, and Burkenroad are no longer involved with the companies.
Lopez has not publicly addressed the lawsuit in any meaningful way. The day after the SEC filing, he posted on X: “Never doom. No matter how horrible the situation, don’t ever think you’re doomed. Unless you are dead, all defeat is psychological.”
What he has done is go back to what he’s always been best at: creating content and launching programs.
The 2025–2026 AI Pivot: Back in His Lane
Here’s the thing about Tai Lopez that even his biggest critics have to acknowledge — the man can read a market.
While the SEC lawsuit was making headlines, Lopez quietly pivoted back to what made him famous in the first place: digital marketing education. Except now the angle is AI. He’s been posting content about AI automation, launching programs around AI-powered business tools, and positioning himself at the intersection of marketing and artificial intelligence.
And honestly? This feels more authentic than anything he’s done since the original SMMA course.
REV was always a stretch. Buying bankrupt retail brands and trying to convert them into ecommerce empires required operational expertise in logistics, supply chain, inventory management, and retail — none of which were in Tai’s wheelhouse. He’s a marketer, not a retail operator. The venture took him miles outside his core competency, and the results (and now the allegations) reflect that.
Coming back to marketing and AI content creation? That’s his lane. That’s where his actual skills live.
Credit Where It’s Due: The Marketing Genius
I want to spend a moment on this because it gets lost in the controversy, and I think it matters.
Tai Lopez is one of the most effective digital marketers of the past decade. Full stop. Whatever you think about him personally, his understanding of attention, virality, and direct-response advertising is genuinely world-class.
Consider what he actually accomplished:
He took a YouTube pre-roll ad — one of the most skippable, annoying formats in digital advertising — and turned it into a cultural phenomenon. The “Here in My Garage” video didn’t just sell courses. It became a meme. It got parodied by major YouTubers. It embedded itself in internet culture. You’re reading this article partly because that video is still referenced a decade later. That’s not luck — that’s craft.
He built a personal brand from zero to millions of followers across every major platform at a time when the playbook for doing so didn’t exist yet. He was one of the first to understand that YouTube ads could fund course sales, which could fund more ads, creating a self-sustaining growth engine. He split-tested relentlessly. He understood that controversy itself was a form of attention, and attention was the raw material of his business.
His email marketing, his funnel design, his ad creative — all of it was sophisticated and effective. The SMMA course, whatever its flaws, was teaching a business model (social media marketing for local businesses) that he actually understood deeply from the marketing side.
If you’re studying personal branding, content marketing, or direct-response advertising, Tai Lopez is a legitimate case study. Not because everything he did was ethical or admirable — but because the mechanics of what he built were genuinely impressive.
The problem was never his marketing ability. It was what happened when he tried to apply that marketing ability to ventures outside his expertise — like convincing 660 people to invest $230 million in a retail turnaround operation that, according to the SEC, never turned a profit.
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The Pattern Worth Understanding
Here’s what makes the Tai Lopez story worth studying — not to pile on, but because it illustrates something important about the online business education space.
Look at the timeline:
| Year | What Tai Was Selling |
|---|---|
| 2015–2016 | 67 Steps, self-improvement courses |
| 2016–2018 | SMMA course, Knowledge Society |
| 2018–2019 | Real estate course, ecommerce courses, Bitcoin course |
| 2019–2022 | REV investment opportunities |
| 2023–2024 | Continued course sales, podcast |
| 2025–present | AI-focused content and programs, back to marketing education |
Every few years, there’s a new vehicle. That’s not unusual for entrepreneurs — smart people follow opportunities. And the AI pivot actually makes more sense than most of his previous moves because it’s adjacent to his genuine expertise in marketing and content creation.
The honest answer has consistently leaned toward the latter. His most visible income streams were course sales and investment raises. That doesn’t automatically mean the courses are worthless — some students have genuinely built agencies using the SMMA framework. But it does mean the “proof of concept” for his methods was always the course business itself rather than the underlying business models being taught.
What About the Courses in 2026?
Despite the SEC lawsuit, Lopez’s course websites remain active. You can still purchase the SMMA program, the 67 Steps, and various other offerings through tailopez.com.
Should you?
Here’s my honest assessment:
The 67 Steps is cheap ($67) and provides some genuine motivational value if you enjoy that style of content. It won’t teach you a business skill, but it’s not trying to. Think of it as a podcast series, not a course.
The SMMA course teaches a legitimate business model — starting a social media marketing agency for local businesses is a real path to income. But the course itself has been criticized as outdated, poorly organized, and heavily padded. Version 9.0 has improved some of these issues, but the core content is available for free or at lower cost through other instructors who actually run active agencies.
Everything else — real estate, ecommerce, crypto courses — I’d pass on entirely. The content is surface-level, and there are significantly better options available from instructors with verifiable track records in those specific fields.
The bigger issue isn’t course quality — it’s context. When the person selling you a course is simultaneously navigating federal fraud allegations, it’s reasonable to weigh that into your decision. It doesn’t necessarily mean the course content is bad, but it’s a factor you should be aware of.
The Affiliate Problem
One thing you should know: many “Tai Lopez reviews” online are written by affiliates who earn commissions when you purchase through their links. Lopez’s affiliate program has been active for years, and it explains why so many reviews land on “controversial but worth it” conclusions.
This review contains no affiliate links to Tai Lopez products. I don’t earn anything from Tai Lopez regardless of what you decide.
Where the “Hustle Gurus” of 2015 Are Now
It’s worth noting how the other major figures from the 2015–2020 era have evolved:
| Name | 2015–2020 Status | 2026 Status |
|---|---|---|
| Tai Lopez | Top guru, massive ad spend | SEC Ponzi lawsuit, FBI investigation |
| Grant Cardone | Real estate guru, 10X movement | Still active, review here |
| Gary Vaynerchuk | Hustle culture icon | Shifted to VeeFriends, NFTs, media company |
| Sam Ovens | Consulting courses | Sold Consulting.com, review here |
| Dan Lok | High-ticket closing courses | Faded from prominence |
Lopez’s situation is the most serious of anyone from that era. The SEC lawsuit doesn’t just affect his current ventures — it inevitably raises questions about the broader brand he built. That said, the courses and the investment venture are separate things, and it’s worth evaluating them independently.
My Honest Verdict
Let me be direct, while also being fair.
Tai Lopez is a complicated figure. He’s undeniably talented at marketing and personal branding — arguably one of the best in the online space over the past decade. Some of his educational content, particularly the SMMA course and the 67 Steps, has provided genuine value to students who put in the work. I’ve seen real testimonials from people who built agencies after going through his programs.
But the SEC lawsuit changes the landscape. You’re being asked to trust business and investment advice from someone the federal government has accused of misleading 660 investors through a company that allegedly operated as a Ponzi scheme. The FBI is conducting a criminal investigation. Settlement talks are underway.
To be clear: Lopez has not been convicted of anything. These are civil allegations, and everyone deserves due process. It’s entirely possible there’s more to the story than what’s in the SEC complaint. I genuinely hope, for the sake of everyone involved — including the investors — that there’s a fair resolution.
But as someone evaluating where to invest your time and money in learning how to build an online income, the practical reality is this: there are excellent instructors with clean track records teaching the exact same business models. You don’t need to take on the uncertainty of Tai’s current legal situation to learn local marketing, social media management, or entrepreneurship.
Give Tai credit for what he got right. Learn from the cautionary tale. Then go build something real with someone who doesn’t have federal regulators in their inbox.
Recommended: See the best business to start online here!
What I’d Recommend Instead
If you found this review because you’re interested in building a real online business — maybe even the SMMA model that Lopez teaches — I want to point you somewhere more solid.
How to Avoid the Next Tai Lopez
The Tai Lopez story isn’t unique. The online business education space has a recurring pattern: charismatic marketers build personal brands around aspirational wealth, sell courses on business models they’ve never personally succeeded in, and eventually face consequences when the gap between their claims and reality gets too wide.
Here’s what to look for when evaluating any online business program or guru:
Can they prove they make money from doing the thing, not just teaching it? If someone sells an SMMA course, they should be able to show active agency clients. If they teach real estate, they should have verifiable deals. Tai Lopez never provided this evidence for any of his courses.
Do they have legal issues or regulatory actions? A quick search of someone’s name plus “SEC,” “FTC,” “lawsuit,” or “complaint” takes 30 seconds. The REV lawsuit was filed by the SEC — that’s publicly available information anyone could have found before investing.
Is their lifestyle verifiable or performative? Rented mansions, leased cars, and borrowed jets are common props in the guru world. Real wealth is usually quiet. The flashier the marketing, the more skeptical you should be.
What does their refund process look like? Legitimate businesses make it easy to get your money back if you’re unsatisfied. Difficulty getting refunds, aggressive retention tactics, and blocked communications are red flags.
Are the reviews independent? If every positive review includes an affiliate link to the product being reviewed, you’re reading marketing, not journalism.
The Business Model Is Sound — The Guru Isn’t
Here’s the irony of Tai Lopez. The business model he teaches in SMMA (helping local businesses with marketing) is genuinely one of the best paths to sustainable online income. Local businesses always need more customers. Digital marketing delivers measurable results. The recurring revenue model creates real financial stability.
But you don’t need Tai Lopez to learn it.
Here’s my #1 recommendation for learning the local marketing business model. It’s taught by my business partner James who has run a successful agency for years. The training is comprehensive, the community is active, and the business model is the same one that’s been creating full-time incomes for years.
Mark is the founder of MarksInsights and has spent 15+ years testing online business programs and tools. He focuses on honest, experience-based reviews that help people avoid scams and find real, sustainable ways to make money online.