On july 2005 a friend of mine who was an employee of a brokerage company called Maxim Grp, from Manhattan, came to me with this deal: if I invest $26,000 I will be paid 12% interest per year, plus other benefits. This investment was a loan for an energy drink company, Xtreme Beverages. He came to me with a contract and a WARRANTY paper, some kind of insurance from a company called Cogent, assuring me that this investment was secured and nothing bad could happen and in the unlikely event that thing could go wrong, my money would be assured by Cogent. I signed both papers and he took them, saying he will return me copies signed be Maxim Group also. As of today, he never came back with anything, signed or unsigned. My repeated requests to Maxim Group were in the beginning followed by promises that everything is fine, i will get my money, no worries. On octomber 2007 i filled a complaint with SEC and Maxim's answer was: the investment was unsecured, he lost all his money. Now i want to sue Maxim Group, because i have various papers to prove that i was lied to and that everything was a scam. I am sure that other people lost money like me. How an I get in touch with them? Can I sue Maxim Group for refusing to give me a copy of the contract ? I sent them 3 letters, with delivery confirmation, asking for my contract. NO ANSWER. Which court should I go to? Thank you.