JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A local businesswoman who built a brand around mentoring others on Airbnb investing now faces a civil arrest for contempt of court.
Janay White, founder of JW Enterprises Unlimited and other local businesses, is at the center of a civil fraud case after a Duval County judge ruled she breached a contract and misled clients who paid her thousands of dollars for business mentorship.
A judge ordered White to pay the plaintiffs’ attorney fees and judgment award back in March. White was then ordered to either pay the judgment or turn over financial records showing she couldn’t. But according to court filings, she has not fully complied.
“Now it’s just a matter of how we recover the payments,” said plaintiff Rayvon Griffin-Bright. “It’s well over 35,000.”
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Court documents show White submitted financial disclosures claiming she had little to no income. But social media tells a different story.
A post from White claims her business earned more than $437,000 during the 2024 tax season. An affidavit filed by the plaintiffs also includes a spreadsheet documenting over $1.2 million allegedly collected from more than 100 people who paid for investment or mentorship services, money the court says White hasn’t accounted for.
“She makes it look like she’s poor, like she has no source of income,” said attorney Christopher Dempsey, who represents Griffin-Bright. “The only thing Janae White has achieved is defrauding everybody. She offered to assist in exchange for significant amounts of capital. All she did was sell them a false hope and plan and take their money and spend it on her designer clothes and expensive parties.”
White’s attorney recently filed an objection and said she made a good-faith effort to cooperate with the court and provide her financial records.
“If that’s good faith, man, that’s a very low standard for good faith,” Dempsey said. “Like, here’s an example. You’re supposed to provide your last three years of tax returns, she provided 2021 and 2022. She did not provide 2023 or 2024 and we know she filed 2024 because she told the world on Facebook, so why didn’t she produce that? That’s not good faith.”
Griffin-Bright said the case has dragged on too long for her and others who say they lost money.
“It’s a slap in the face to the victims,” she said. “We have so much evidence that this is not a disgruntled customer. This is not a mistake. This is a whole scheme to defraud the community.”
Dempsey urged the court to issue a writ of bodily attachment, essentially a civil arrest warrant that would allow law enforcement to take White into custody.
“She has had a constant disregard for the judicial process, and I think she believes if she just buries her head in the sand or just drags her feet, there will be no consequence,” Dempsey said. “But I’m here to tell her and all her victims that might be tuning in to watch your story, that I’m not giving up until justice is served.”
Griffin-Bright is hoping to move on as a new mom herself, and before her birthday this weekend.
“I’m 32. My birthday is tomorrow, actually, so I’m hoping for 33 that I can put this whole thing behind me,” she said.
Now that the judge signed the writ of bodily attachment, she could be jailed for five days. But even if she serves time, she would still be required to pay the judgment totaling more than $35,000.
News4JAX reached out to White and her most recent attorney for comment on this story. We have yet to receive a response.