Cachengo, Inc. says its former CEO and members of his family engaged in a years-long scheme to siphon millions of dollars from the company, improperly title company assets in their personal names, and misappropriate proprietary technology.
They filed a verified complaint on December 29 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee against former CEO Ashlee (Ash) Young, his wife Janae Young, and their daughter Aurora Beaulieu, alleging civil racketeering (RICO), fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, and more.
The lawsuit follows months of turmoil at the company, including payroll delays, employee complaints, and a shareholder vote that removed the Young family from leadership in early November.
As previously reported, employees spoke out about missed paychecks stretching back months, and a leaked internal email cited a whistleblower report on the misuse of company funds and a lack of operating cash as the basis for the leadership change.
Cachengo is seeking the return of the disputed properties, vehicles, and proprietary technology, along with injunctive relief and damages of no less than $10 million, alleging that the Young family misappropriated at least that much in company funds through real estate transactions, vehicle purchases, personal spending, and other unauthorized uses over several years.
The lawsuit lists more than a dozen properties and at least 15 vehicles that Cachengo claims were purchased or maintained with company money but remain titled to members of the Young family.
The Defendants
Ash Young served as Cachengo’s chief executive officer until November 7, and according to the complaint, directed a scheme to misuse company funds for personal benefit.
The complaint alleges he authorized millions of dollars in improper spending, titled company-funded real estate and vehicles in his personal name, made false or misleading statements to raise investment capital, and later removed proprietary technology and interfered with company operations after his termination.
“Mr. Young regularly made false statements to Investors to Fund His Misappropriation,” the complaint reads. “Prior to his termination, Mr. Young was responsible for all matters related to raising capital for Cachengo.”
Janae Young is named in the lawsuit based on allegations that she participated in and benefited from the improper titling of company-funded assets and the misuse of Cachengo funds. The complaint alleges she held company positions and fiduciary responsibilities and breached those duties by enabling or taking part in transactions that diverted company assets for personal use.
Aurora Beaulieu is named as a defendant because the complaint alleges she played an active role in approving and executing payments for expenses later deemed improper. Cachengo claims her involvement in processing undocumented or personal expenditures made her a participant in the alleged scheme rather than a passive family beneficiary.
The lawsuit alleges that the defendants are responsible for nearly $12 million in questionable purchases between 2023 and 2025.
What comes next
The lawsuit outlines detailed allegations involving real estate holdings, vehicle purchases, personal spending, farm-related expenses, and false statements made to investors, which will be examined in subsequent coverage.
It asserts five causes of action, including a civil racketeering claim alleging the defendants operated an unlawful enterprise to misappropriate company assets; a trade secrets claim against Ash Young over the alleged removal and retention of Cachengo’s “Deep Dish” prototype; breach of fiduciary duty claims against Ash and Janae Young; a replevin claim seeking the return of vehicles and other property Cachengo says it owns; and a request for a declaratory judgment establishing Cachengo’s ownership of disputed real estate, vehicles, and proprietary technology.
The company is seeking at least $10 million in damages, treble damages under federal RICO, and attorneys’ fees and costs.
The allegations detailed in the complaint have not been proven in court.
Cachengo has also asked the court to prevent further alleged misuse of company assets while the case proceeds.
The defendants are presumed innocent, and no responses had been filed at the time of publication. This story will be updated as the case progresses.
This is Part One of a multi-part series examining the federal lawsuit filed by Cachengo. Part Two will break down the assets and purchases tied to the lawsuit.
Terrible situation for this family!! No doubt in my mind the women were just following the lead of the CEO. Anything brought onto them in court should be suspended and dismissed. They were just doing the job they where provided and asked to do.
no, all of those involved knew exactly what they were doing… and they lived like royalty while their employees were stuck in so-called “employee housing” in the old hospital up there near the interchange of US 79 and TN22 with no heat, or paychecks, or food at times.
sometimes the only reason why employees that were staying at the old hospital had food was because of the “community pantry” that they had, which was basically a little kitchenette with some canned goods in it and a microwave, and the so-called “private rooms” which were the old hospital rooms, had no door locks of any kind on them, and there was often all manner of people coming and going at all hours.. which is obviously potentially dangerous.. especially since they had a mentally challenged employee that they took in as a charity case, that showed aggressive tendencies at times and I’ve heard a few stories of him allegedly following women around to their rooms or to the bathroom…
Right after they fired my wife, illegally I might add, I had to help her remove her belongings from her room, and said individual was standing in the dark hallway, staring at her… and the only time he retreated was when I showed up.. we weren’t married at that point.. we weren’t even together, but she had nowhere else to go.
She was driving one of my cars because I wanted to make sure that no one could try to manipulate her because the “company car” that they let her use, which was an early 2000s Volkswagen convertible which had serious mechanical problems and broke down constantly, could have been taken at any time.
Aurora and Janae were both extremely snide and controlling, and they felt threatened by anybody that they could not control or anyone that called them out on the BS that they kept spewing.
On top of that, I must say, there are Christians, and then there are cultists.. this bunch was very much the latter..
these people are dangerous, their behaviors, choices, policies, have nearly resulted in a few folks getting hurt or worse.. at one point they had a woman followed, and were harassing her.. they even forced one of their own relatives to work alongside a man that had previously molested her!
What kind of a dirtbag thinks that is okay??
Oh and let’s not forget how they were actively monitoring people’s devices, and conversations on those devices, both phone calls and text messages as well as web browsing and app usage, without consent.. I personally recovered malware from seven different devices, two of which my now wife was using at the time..
…ad let’s not forget the dozens of individuals that they hired to work remotely out of state, that they screwed out of pay and benefits, The company didn’t even report that they had employees in some of those other states…
those folks can’t even get unemployment, they get no benefits, they get NOTHING!
Ash, Aurora, and Janae are some of the lowest examples of humanity today.
There was, and is so many reasons why these people need to go to prison for a very VERY long time.
The new management of Cachengo, as well as the stockholders that financed the charade, not only need to sue these people for every last penny they have ever had, have now, or will ever have, but they need to push HARD for criminal charges., and they also really need to find a way to make it up to former employees as well as the current ones…
The now former management of Cachengo and everyone like them, need to spend the rest of their days in the deepest, darkest hole that the US prison system can muster.
All while living in that nice big home alone house, with their fancy cars and horses…
You have that right. I guess that’s how the big wedding got paid for w free drinks. Or the house they brought ,( the daughter and her husband)and they got free labor through the a rehabilitation program, to fix up one of the homes. Tearing down fences that where there for over 20 yrs. Because the property lines never got changed on the deeds ,because at one time it was all in the family. Now Bob wires are laying on the ground, trees that were cut down.
I agree w the one comment, they all knew what was going on. And they all were enjoying the benefits of it. If u help hide a murder , even if u didn’t do it, you still get time.
A guy in college did a report on blue collar and white collar crime. You murder ,u get life. White collar, u sale faulty tires that killed 1000’s of people ,u pay a fine. Don’t worry , they get a slap on the hand and sit in a luxury hotel , called a prison. Least they don’t have to steal.
They deserve every ounce of prison time they get. They screwed people out of investment funds that led to nothing burgers and didn’t pay their employees, providing trickle money to appease them and then threatened employees if they talked to each other. Hope they rot in hell.
They deserve every ounce of prison time they get. They screwed people out of investment funds that led to nothing burgers and didn’t pay their employees, providing trickle money to appease them and then threatened employees if they talked to each other. Hope they rot in hell. Not to mention the families that had to help people when they weren’t getting paid.
no, all of those involved knew exactly what they were doing… and they lived like royalty while their employees were stuck in so-called “employee housing” in the old hospital up there near the interchange of US 79 and TN22 with no heat, or paychecks, or food at times.
sometimes the only reason why employees that were staying at the old hospital had food was because of the “community pantry” that they had, which was basically a little kitchenette with some canned goods in it and a microwave, and the so-called “private rooms” which were the old hospital rooms, had no door locks of any kind on them, and there was often all manner of people coming and going at all hours.. which is obviously potentially dangerous.. especially since they had a mentally challenged employee that they took in as a charity case, that showed aggressive tendencies at times and I’ve heard a few stories of him allegedly following women around to their rooms or to the bathroom…
Right after they fired my wife, illegally I might add, I had to help her remove her belongings from her room, and said individual was standing in the dark hallway, staring at her… and the only time he retreated was when I showed up.. we weren’t married at that point.. we weren’t even together, but she had nowhere else to go.
She was driving one of my cars because I wanted to make sure that no one could try to manipulate her because the “company car” that they let her use, which was an early 2000s Volkswagen convertible which had serious mechanical problems and broke down constantly, could have been taken at any time.
Aurora and Janae were both extremely snide and controlling, and they felt threatened by anybody that they could not control or anyone that called them out on the BS that they kept spewing.
On top of that, I must say, there are Christians, and then there are cultists.. this bunch was very much the latter..
these people are dangerous, their behaviors, choices, policies, have nearly resulted in a few folks getting hurt or worse.. at one point they had a woman followed, and were harassing her.. they even forced one of their own relatives to work alongside a man that had previously molested her!
What kind of a dirtbag thinks that is okay??
Oh and let’s not forget how they were actively monitoring people’s devices, and conversations on those devices, both phone calls and text messages as well as web browsing and app usage, without consent.. I personally recovered malware from seven different devices, two of which my now wife was using at the time..
…ad let’s not forget the dozens of individuals that they hired to work remotely out of state, that they screwed out of pay and benefits, The company didn’t even report that they had employees in some of those other states…
those folks can’t even get unemployment, they get no benefits, they get NOTHING!
Ash, Aurora, and Janae are some of the lowest examples of humanity today.
There was, and is so many reasons why these people need to go to prison for a very VERY long time.
The new management of Cachengo, as well as the stockholders that financed the charade, not only need to sue these people for every last penny they have ever had, have now, or will ever have, but they need to push HARD for criminal charges., and they also really need to find a way to make it up to former employees as well as the current ones…
The now former management of Cachengo and everyone like them, need to spend the rest of their days in the deepest, darkest hole that the US prison system can muster.