MINNESOTA, September 9, 2026 — Today, the State of Minnesota by its Attorney General, Keith Ellison, filed a lawsuit against C4D, LLC, Five Points Properties, LLC, Travis Benoit, and Steven Legatt, alleging the businesses and their owners targeted Minnesota’s Somali Muslim community with highly abusive and deceptive contracts for deed. Relman Colfax PLLC, one of the nation's premier civil rights law firms, represents the Attorney General as outside counsel. The lawsuit seeks civil penalties, injunctive relief to halt the unlawful conduct, and restitution for affected victims.
“We are proud to work alongside the state of Minnesota and take a stand against the destructive legacy of discriminatory contracts for deed that strip wealth from historically marginalized people and communities,” said Zoila Hinson, Partner at Relman Colfax. “Based on the evidence outlined in our complaint, these defendants are intentionally profiting from the exploitation of the Somali Muslim community in Minnesota. We are working tirelessly to ensure the rule of law will safeguard the community from further harm and provide justice for the victims targeted by the defendants.”
The complaint, filed in the state’s Fourth Judicial District, alleges that the C4D Defendants’ scheme furthers a long history of predatory contract for deed practices. “Reverse redlining” involves the targeting of a community for the marketing of deceptive, predatory, or otherwise deleterious lending practices because of its racial, ethnic, or religious composition. The state of Minnesota alleges that the C4D Defendants have reverse redlined the Somali Muslim community living in Hennepin County and the surrounding areas, and exploit the religious convictions of their victims.
“To exploit someone’s deeply held religious belief in order to impoverish them and leave them without a home while illegally enriching yourself is a special kind of low,” Attorney General Ellison said. “A home is the biggest and most significant purchase most of us will ever make, which is why so many state and federal laws on the books protect home buyers and make sure these transactions are entirely above board. We have other important laws to protect people from being discriminated against in commercial transactions on the basis of religion, race, sex, gender, and many other properly protected categories. My office and I have charged and won cases like this before and we intend to do so again."
Many members of the Somali Muslim community in Minnesota observe religious principles that forbid them to pay interest and late fees. As a result, they are unable to obtain conventional mortgages, both because they cannot pay interest due to their religious beliefs and because, for the same reason, they have not built up the standard credit history required to obtain conventional mortgages. The complaint alleges that C4D uses this religious conviction against these customers, marketing the C4D contracts for deed as “no credit score required,” purporting to be endorsed by local imams, and claiming, falsely, that their contracts for deed do not charge interest and late fees.
The complaint alleges that, using the promises of home ownership and financing consistent with Islamic religious practices, the C4D Defendants lure their victims, almost exclusively members of the Somali Muslim community, into contracts for deed with inflated prices and exorbitant finance charges. C4D purports to be a “trusted partner for the Somali and Muslim communities,” and presents its contracts for deed as an effective “trusted alternative” path to home ownership for people who have historically been shut out of the conventional mortgage market due to religious beliefs or lack of credit history.
But the state of Minnesota alleges that the promise is a false one. Due to the extortionate costs, undisclosed fees, deceptive contracting practices, and abusive terms, an extraordinary percentage of the C4D Defendants’ purchasers can neither keep up with contract payments nor refinance. And because the C4D Defendants misrepresent and/or fail to disclose key terms, unsuspecting purchasers are often unaware of or unclear about their obligations and risks until it is too late. It is alleged that the C4D Defendants have made no meaningful attempt to ensure that their customers understand the terms of the contracts for deed and do not thoroughly explain contract terms. When purchasers cannot keep up with the required payments, they can suddenly lose everything.
The C4D Defendants’ own data shows that their contracts fail at a rate more than 20 times the national foreclosure rate.
The lawsuit alleges the Defendants’ reverse redlining practices violate the Minnesota Human Rights Act and the federal Equal Credit Opportunity Act. In addition to reverse redlining, the state of Minnesota also alleges that the C4D Defendants are independently violating Minnesota’s Prevention of Consumer Fraud Act, Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act, and Minnesota contract for deed disclosure requirements, and the federal Truth in Lending Act and Consumer Financial Protection Act.
The complaint alleges that, from its inception, C4D’s predatory business scheme has had one target: Minnesota’s Somali Muslim community. It is alleged that the C4D Defendants’ victims are at a high risk of default, foreclosure, or eviction, while the C4D Defendants reap all the profits.
“The people of Minnesota deserve to be free from schemes targeting them based on their national origin and religious beliefs,” Hinson continued. “We are hopeful that this litigation will put an end to these practices that have stripped wealth from the community and prevented community members from accumulating wealth through home ownership.”
Read the full complaint: State of Minnesota v. C4D, LLC, Five Points Properties, LLC, Travis Benoit, and Steven Legatt