Fatai Oshi-Ojuri says the first investment he and his wife made together as a couple wasn’t a wedding.

It was a real estate project pitched by New Orleans’ 911 director.

“We decided not to have a wedding and do some investments instead and put our money into places to kind of grow our family and our incomes,” Oshi-Ojuri said. “So, we thought this was a good idea. And this was one of the actual first things we did as a couple together.”

Oshi-Ojuri, who lives in Sacramento, Calif., said a friend in New Orleans introduced him in 2020 to Tyrell Morris, then the executive director of the Orleans Parish Communication District. Morris invited investors to participate in what he called the Gladiator Group’s “inaugural real estate investment project… Community Investing in Community.”

Now, Oshi-Ojuri and several other investors say Morris used that venture to collect tens of thousands of dollars from them – money they say they now can’t locate or document. The allegations come as Morris, who was convicted last fall of fraud and other crimes related to his tenure running the city’s 911 system, has just been released from prison and is serving probation while appealing his conviction.

“I think ‘scam’ is too light of a word,” Oshi-Ojuri said.

Oshi-Ojuri and another investor named Marlon Gray said they were drawn to supporting Morris’ ventures because of his high-profile public job in New Orleans. They said they saw him wearing a Class A uniform resembling that of a police chief and standing with then-Mayor LaToya Cantrell at important news conferences. They learned he also ran private businesses as a real estate agent, mortgage broker and as a software programmer and vendor.

RELATED: David Hammer Investigates: The George Santos of New Orleans

“It seemed like we were well informed and that Tyrell was someone that we could trust, especially based on his public position, which in hindsight it seemed as if he used his public positions as a way to gain confidence,” Oshi-Ojuri said.

Gray, who runs a behavioral health company in New Jersey, said Morris was also providing software services to his business through the Gladiator Group.

“So, he had a software company that he was operating. And so, he was performing services for us under the name Gladiator Group,” Gray said.

The Gladiator Group’s first project appeared to validate that trust. Eight investors contributed a combined $80,000 in March 2021 to develop a property at 1501 Mazant St. in the Upper Ninth Ward. The house sold a little more than a year later for $375,000.

Oshi-Ojuri said the return — about 80 percent on his and his wife’s $10,000 investment — convinced him and other investors to keep going.

“It was about an 80% return on the $10,000 we invested. We were like, ‘Oh, hey, this is great!’” he said. “And then he said he had a third project that he was starting up and asked us, ‘Hey, did we want to roll over that original investment and the profits from that investment into this third investment opportunity?’ And we said, ‘Oh yeah, of course!’”

Before the Mazant Street project was even completed, Morris encouraged investors to roll their profits into a new $200,000 development on two vacant lots in Gentilly, at 5319 and 5323 Painters Street, Morris wrote in an email pitch that investors could expect to sell the finished houses for about $800,000.

Financial records show Oshi-Ojuri and his wife added $22,000 to their initial investment, while Gray said he contributed more than $60,000 on top of the $30,000 he had already invested in the Mazant Street project.

But Gray said he insisted that a new company be formed to separate the real estate venture from Morris’ other businesses. The investors created CIC103 LLC, with Morris’ Gladiator Group serving as manager and all six members signing on to having certain powers, according to documents provided to WWL by Gray and Oshi-Ojuri.

That agreement states the manager “must … obtain the vote in favor of, consent to, or approval of the Members before” hiring any new contractors, entering into debt or agreeing to sell the property.

“That’s when I started looking into the titles,” Gray said. “And the first major red flag that I had was that I saw that Gladiator Group not only was managing us by way of (an operating agreement signed by all six members of CIC103 LLC… but it wasn’t in the CIC103 LLC name as it should have been. It was in Gladiator Group’s name. So, we effectively had no asset.”

Gray and Oshi-Ojuri said Morris placed the properties and mortgages in the Gladiator Group’s name without investor approval.

“We never voted on anything, didn’t run anything by us for approval.”

RELATED: WWL confronts Tyrell Morris with accident video

Records the investors obtained show the Gladiator Group owed more than $50,000 in past due payments and interest on the mortgage for one of the Painters Street properties as of Jan. 1, and city tax records show more than $11,000 in property taxes remained unpaid as of Monday, March 23.

The investors also discovered the Gladiator Group defaulted on the mortgage for another project, 1511 Mazant Street, last summer, just months before Morris’ criminal trial. City records show over $8,000 in taxes owed on that property as of Monday.

The official national real estate listing service shows Morris listed 1511 Mazant for sale as owner and real estate agent but hasn’t been able to sell it. Public records also show Morris was not only the owner of the LLC that borrowed that mortgage, but also the loan officer who arranged the financing.

Corporate filings show Morris added his mother, Delores Marie Lashley, as a member of the Gladiator Group in early 2024. Mortgage records show Lashley later signed documents for the loan Morris arranged as “member manager” of the Gladiator Group, even though state corporate records still listed Morris as the company’s manager.

The Mazant Street project had previously drawn scrutiny from state regulators. In 2022, the Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors investigated the project and determined the builder lacked the proper license to construct new homes.

Investigators said Morris told them he did not know the builder lacked the required license. But the investigation found Morris had signed contracts with a different contractor whose license was then used to obtain building permits even though he did not perform the work.

Gray said Morris gave him a different explanation.

“He said the contractor died,” Gray said.

When asked whether Morris told him the licensing board found the permit holder had not actually performed the work, Gray responded, “No, never.”

The Louisiana Real Estate Commission also investigated Morris’ handling of the Mazant Street properties in 2022. In an email, the commission’s attorney wrote that “The evidence seemed to support finding that (Morris) may have violated the (Contractor’s Board) laws and rules … (but) did not support finding that Mr. Morris violated” the state’s real estate licensing law.

RELATED: Tyrell Morris disqualified from mayoral race over false statement on tax filings

The commission later opened a new investigation related to Morris’ criminal conviction but indicated it is unlikely to act while his appeal is pending. Records show Morris renewed his real estate license in December while he was still in prison.

In the renewal application, Morris wrote: “My convictions are NOT final as my application for appeal has been granted and additional evidence has come to light that we are certain will overturn the convictions.”

Morris’ criminal conviction stems from conduct during his tenure as head of the city’s 911 system.

At his trial last fall, jurors watched video of a WWL Louisiana interview, confronting Morris about a crash he had in a city vehicle and his claim that another driver swerved around him. After seeing the video, he admitted on camera that he, Morris, had indeed turned into the other driver.

“Looking at the video. I mean it’s undeniable,” Morris replied.

Prosecutors played that interview for jurors, who ultimately convicted Morris of four felony counts, including injuring public records and insurance fraud.

Judge Simone Levine sentenced Morris to prison Oct. 1. He was released Feb. 1 after serving just over four months and is now on probation while appealing his conviction.

Oshi-Ojuri said he hopes authorities will investigate the investors’ claims.

Morris declined to do a recorded interview. Detailed questions about the investors’ allegations and the state regulators’ investigations were sent to him March 5, but he did not answer them on the record.