First, Fixer Upper‘s Chip and Joanna Gaines were under fire for their religious views. Then, Flip or Flop‘s Tarek and Christina El Moussa dramatically ended their marriage. It seems like home improvement shows and their hosts have no shortage of drama lately.
More: Tarek El Moussa tried to find love again — with the nanny
And now there’s another one: Flip This House‘s Armando Montelongo is being sued in Texas by nearly 200 plaintiffs.
Those who are suing Montelongo allege that he uses his company’s $1,500 seminars to rope students into paying for more classes, costing them as much as $54,000. Montelongo, however, says that’s never been a secret.
“We’ve always been very transparent about our business model,” he told In Touch Weekly. “We’ve even showed it on Undercover Boss.”
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But attorney Christopher Wimmer, who is leading the class-action lawsuit against Montelongo, says his clients feel that “they’ve been cheated,” and Montelongo’s company has “a plan to defraud all of these individuals because they’re not offering genuine education services — just an opportunity to buy more products.” Wimmer goes even further, and claims that Montelongo’s company’s “scheme has destroyed livelihoods, wrecked marriages, driven students into clinical depression and even resulted in suicide.”
Montelongo’s company issued a statement about the lawsuit, saying those involved are people who “decided that continuous hard work is not for them.”
The statement continued, “These plaintiffs are reaching… a number of these individuals that I’ve taught how to be successful have opened up a competitive seminar company or a competitive educational online company and — are colluding to come together to try to bring down No. 1.”
More: Maybe Tarek El Moussa needed all the heartbreak he got in 2016
Montelongo’s newest show, Flipping Nightmares, is set to debut on streaming platforms next month.
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