Roll Em Up boasts 14 locations on its website. | Photo by Lisa Jennings
The franchisor of the Roll Em Up Taquitos brand has been sued by a group of franchisees who describe the operation as a Ponzi scheme masked as a restaurant franchise.
The lawsuit, filed in the Superior Court of California, Riverside County, was initially filed in July 2025 and is ongoing. But CEO and founder Ryan Usrey appears to have evaded court officials, after months of attempts to reach him. An attorney most recently known as representing Usrey did not respond to requests for comment.
In the lawsuit, five former and current franchisees of the brand have charged Usrey, former Chief Development Officer Chris Wyland, and Director of IT and Restaurant Manager Cody Soscia with fraud, negligent misrepresentation of the business and misappropriation of funds.
The three are described in the filing as key figures who controlled the operation.
The franchisees are seeking compensatory damages, saying they face financial ruin after investing in a brand that was misrepresented from the start as a viable business.
Roll Em Up is a fast-casual concept founded in 2019 by Usrey, who opened the first restaurant in Chino Hills, California, using his “mama Karen’s” taquito recipes. The company began franchising in 2021.
The lawsuit described Usrey, Wyland and Soscia as “ring leaders of a type of Ponzi scheme masked in the guise of a restaurant franchise operation, Roll Em Up Taquitos,” according to court documents.
The franchisees say in the filing that Roll Em Up made a series of misrepresentations and omissions, offering inflated performance numbers to prospective franchisees to lure them into their scheme.
“Once prospective franchisees took the bait, they then had to pay royalties and other franchisee fees to [the franchisor]. In return, [the franchisor] provided no support,” the lawsuit states.
The franchisees argue that Roll Em Up “failed miserably to provide any of their obligatory duties to franchisees, essentially leaving all franchisees to financial failure.”
The lawsuit outlines a number of misleading statements by Roll Em Up, including the promise that operating the fast-casual concept was “simple” and that anyone, even those without restaurant experience, could do it.
The franchisees also argue that Roll Em Up misrepresented the cost of goods and labor, as well as the annual sales of three units in Southern California, which the franchisor said produced between $1.8 million to $2.6 million in annual sales.
Roll Em Up also told the franchisees that the business model would be profitable with serving freshly rolled taquitos—but that operators would be even more profitable by serving “flash frozen” taquitos made fresh daily in a proprietary kitchen.
What was supplied, however, were frozen taquitos from “questionable suppliers,” that the franchise operators said were poor quality, often breaking during the cooking process, court documents said.
Other misrepresentations were also made, like the availability of Halal meat, access to supplies of cups and plates with the brand logo, the availability of an e-commerce website for ordering supplies, and social media support, all of which, the lawsuit states, was lacking.
The lawsuit also questions Roll Em Up’s claims that former professional football player DeSean Jackson was a “celebrity investor” in the brand, including his photo in the “Brand Book.”
The franchisees argue that Roll Em Up left some important information out of franchise disclosure documents, including past litigation.
Roll Em Up, for example, did not disclose litigation dating back to 2014 involving Wyland, who was represented to franchisees as Roll Em Up’s chief development officer in the early years. (Wyland in the past said he served as a consultant at Roll Em Up and divested a minority stake in late 2022.)
Wyland, however, previously owned a vending-machine company called Grow Healthy Vending LLC (or Grow Franchise Group LLC). He was accused in Washington state and Utah of fraud and misrepresentation in two separate cases. That business was ordered to stop operating in both states.
Had that information about Wyland’s past been disclosed, the franchisees said they would not have invested in Roll Em Up, the lawsuit states.
Wyland and Soscia did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The lawsuit also cites several examples of millions lost after franchisees invested in the brand.
Plaintiffs Cameron Jackman and William May, under PMR Group LLC, for example, in 2022 signed a franchise agreement for five Roll Em Up locations in Arizona, investing $100,000, or $20,000 each.
PMR invested more than $548,000 to build a unit in Chandler, and $379,000 to open in Gilbert.
The Chandler restaurant operated for about seven months, never achieving more than $70,000 in any month.
“The Chandler, Arizona location never hit ‘break even,’ much less profitability,” the lawsuit said. The unit closed in October 2023, and the company’s operational losses totaled $161,324, and guarantors were still facing liability for the lease, the lawsuit said.
PMR’s Gilbert unit, likewise, never broke even and continued to accrue operational losses of up to $10,000 or more a month, at the time of the lawsuit filing. The restaurant had a 15-year lease.
The allegations from other franchisees in the lawsuit were similar.
Jon and Sarah Ramos opened a unit in July 2024 that lasted less than a year, closing in January 2025. The Ramoses said they invested about $600,000, and also still faced liability for their leases as of the lawsuit’s filing date.
Another franchisee operating as Borrowed LLC invested $100,000 for rights to Orange County, California. That franchisee was investing based on the promise that Halal proteins would be available.
After investing more than $756,000 to build in Irvine, California, the location “lost its ability to sell Halal” taquitos, which resulted in the loss of $985,130 for the operator, the lawsuit states.
The other franchisees named as plaintiffs include Glen Elder, Thelma Lemus, Jon Peleo and the companies GES Group LLC, We Prevail Inc., and 5 Squared LLC.
Fundamentally, the lawsuit alleges that Roll Em Up “stole, misappropriated, embezzled, converted and/or diverted” the franchisees money for their own use.
A hearing on the case is scheduled for July 9.
Roll Em Up has faced several other lawsuits in recent years.
In a case filed in 2024, Usrey was sued by the carmaker Ferrari after he stopped payments on a $415,000 F8 Tributo bought in 2022 in both his and the company’s name. Eventually, Usrey surrendered the car and it was sold at auction, according to court documents in that case.
And another lawsuit filed in 2024 in New Mexico by franchisee FMP Ventures Inc. and Reserve Industries Corp. involves a dispute over a unit in Las Vegas. The franchisee wanted to divest, and the company agreed to buy the location, but payments were not made, according to that lawsuit, which is ongoing.
It’s not clear how many Roll Em Up locations are still operating. The chain’s website lists 14 units, mostly in Southern California, but also restaurants in Las Vegas, Texas, Nebraska and Tennessee.
