Heritage Global Network Los Angeles, Inc. v. Taylor Welch; Chris Evans; Lance Welch; Wealth Cap Holdings, LLC; Wealth Cap Funds, LLC; Wealth Cap Fund 2, LLC; WCH AL-1001, LLC; WCH AL-1002, LLC; WCH AL-1003, LLC; WCH AL-1004, LLC; WCH MO-1001, LLC; WCH MO-1002, LLC; WCH MO-1003, LLC; WCH NC-1001, LLC; WCH NC-1002, LLC; WCH NC-1003, LLC; WCH NC-1004, LLC

District Court, M.D. Tennessee·Decided July 15, 2026·No. 3:23-cv-00685·Unknown

Opinion

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE MIDDLE DISTRICT OF TENNESSEE NASHVILLE DIVISION

HERITAGE GLOBAL NETWORK LOS ) ANGELES, INC., ) ) Plaintiff, ) ) v. ) Case No. 3:23-cv-00685 ) Judge Aleta A. Trauger TAYLOR WELCH; CHRIS EVANS; ) LANCE WELCH; WEALTH CAP ) HOLDINGS, LLC; WEALTH CAP ) FUNDS, LLC; WEALTH CAP FUND 2, ) LLC; ) ) Defendants, and ) ) WCH AL-1001, LLC; WCH AL-1002, ) LLC; WCH AL-1003, LLC; WCH AL- ) 1004, LLC; WCH MO-1001, LLC; WCH ) MO-1002, LLC; WCH MO-1003, LLC; ) WCH NC-1001, LLC; WCH NC-1002, ) LLC; WCH NC-1003, LLC; and WCH ) NC-1004, LLC, ) ) Relief Defendants. )

MEMORANDUM and ORDER Before the court is the defendants’ Motion to Exclude the Opinions of Plaintiff’s Disclosed Expert David Perry (Doc. No. 109), filed with a supporting Memorandum of law (Doc. No. 110). The plaintiff opposes the motion (Doc. No. 119), and the defendants filed a Reply in further support thereof (Doc. No. 122). The defendants ask the court to decline to consider Perry’s opinions in ruling on their Motions for Summary Judgment or to admit his opinions as evidence at the upcoming trial. As set forth herein, the motion will be granted in part and denied in part. I. LEGAL STANDARDS Federal Rule of Evidence 702 governs the admissibility of expert testimony. It states: A witness who is qualified as an expert by knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education may testify in the form of an opinion or otherwise if the proponent demonstrates to the court that it is more likely than not that: (a) the expert’s scientific, technical, or other specialized knowledge will help the trier of fact to understand the evidence or to determine a fact in issue; (b) the testimony is based on sufficient facts or data; (c) the testimony is the product of reliable principles and methods; and (d) the expert’s opinion reflects a reliable application of the principles and methods to the facts of the case. Thus, aside from establishing a witness’s qualifications as an expert, the proponent of expert testimony must persuade the court by a preponderance of the evidence that the expert’s testimony is both relevant and reliable. United States v. LaVictor, 848 F.3d 428, 441 (6th Cir. 2017) (citing Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharms., Inc., 509 U.S. 579, 589 (1993)). Regarding reliability, the Supreme Court in Daubert articulated a nonexclusive list of considerations for assessing a scientific expert’s testimony, including (1) whether the theory or methodology has been or can be tested; (2) whether it has been subjected to peer review; (3) whether it has a known or potential rate of error; and (4) whether it has been generally accepted in the scientific community. Daubert, 509 U.S. at 593–94. In Kumho Tire Co. v. Carmichael, the Court clarified that the reliability inquiry Daubert outlined covers not just scientific testimony, but also expert testimony based on “technical” and “other specialized knowledge.” 526 U.S. 137, 141 (1999) (citing Fed. R. Evid. 702). The Supreme Court also recognized that, in such cases, the Daubert factors “may or may not be pertinent in assessing reliability, depending on the nature of the issue, the expert’s particular expertise, and the subject of his testimony.” Kumho Tire, 526 U.S. at 150; see also Gross v. Comm’r, 272 F.3d 333, 339 (6th Cir. 2001) (explaining that the Daubert factors “are not dispositive in every case” and should be applied only “where they are reasonable measures of the reliability of expert testimony”). Finally, the threshold consideration in all evidentiary issues is relevance. Fed. R. Ev. 402. Under Rule 401, evidence is relevant if it has “any tendency to make a fact more or less probable than it would be without the evidence” and “the fact is of consequence in determining the action.”

Irrelevant evidence is not admissible. Fed. R. Evid. 402. To determine whether an expert’s testimony will assist the trier of fact, courts must “look to ‘whether the untrained layman would be qualified to determine intelligently and to the best possible degree the particular issue without enlightenment from those having a specialized understanding of the subject involved in the dispute.’” United States v. Rios, 830 F.3d 403, 413 (6th Cir. 2016) (quoting Fed. R. Evid. 702, advisory committee’s note to 1972 proposed rules). Accordingly, “[a] district court may commit manifest error by admitting expert testimony where the evidence impermissibly mirrors the testimony offered by fact witnesses, or the subject matter of the expert’s testimony is not beyond the ken of the average juror.” Id. (citation omitted).

Notably, Rule 702 was amended in 2023 to emphasize that the court is entrusted with determining whether the admissibility criteria have been established, rather than treating them as “questions of weight” to be determined by the factfinder. Fed. R. Evid. 702 advisory committee’s notes to 2023 amendment; see also Fed. R. Evid. 104(a) (“The court must decide any preliminary question about whether a witness is qualified, a privilege exists, or evidence is admissible.”). However, “nothing in the amendment requires the court to nitpick an expert’s opinion in order to reach a perfect expression of what the basis and methodology can support. The Rule 104(a) standard does not require perfection.” Fed. R. Evid. 702 advisory committee’s notes to 2023 amendment. “The task for the district court in deciding whether an expert’s opinion is reliable is not to determine whether it is correct, but rather to determine whether it rests upon a reliable foundation, as opposed to, say, unsupported speculation.” In re Onglyza (Saxagliptin) & Kombiglyze (Saxagliptin & Metformin) Prods. Liab. Litig., 93 F.4th 339, 345 (6th Cir. 2024) (quoting In re Scrap Metal Antitrust Litig., 527 F.3d 517, 529–30 (6th Cir. 2008)). “The party proffering the expert . . . bears the burden of showing by a preponderance of the evidence that the

expert satisfies Rule 702.” Id. II. BACKGROUND The court presumes familiarity with the contemporaneously filed Memorandum and Order on the defendants’ summary judgment motion and supplies herein only the background strictly necessary to the present motion. The plaintiff in this case, Heritage Global Network Los Angeles, Inc. (“Heritage”), brings federal and state statutory securities fraud claims, along with state common law fraud, breach of contract, and unjust enrichment claims, against multiple entity and individual defendants. It claims that, as a result of the defendants’ misdeeds, it lost $5,000,000 in an investment vehicle run by the defendants.

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Heritage Global Network Los Angeles, Inc. v. Taylor Welch; Chris Evans; Lance Welch; Wealth Cap Holdings, LLC; Wealth Cap Funds, LLC; Wealth Cap Fund 2, LLC; WCH AL-1001, LLC; WCH AL-1002, LLC; WCH AL-1003, LLC; WCH AL-1004, LLC; WCH MO-1001, LLC; WCH MO-1002, LLC; WCH MO-1003, LLC; WCH NC-1001, LLC; WCH NC-1002, LLC; WCH NC-1003, LLC; WCH NC-1004, LLC, (M.D. Tenn. 2026).

Heritage Global Network Los Angeles, Inc. v. Taylor Welch; Chris Evans; Lance Welch; Wealth Cap Holdings, LLC; Wealth Cap Funds, LLC; Wealth Cap Fund 2, LLC; WCH AL-1001, LLC; WCH AL-1002, LLC; WCH AL-1003, LLC; WCH AL-1004, LLC; WCH MO-1001, LLC; WCH MO-1002, LLC; WCH MO-1003, LLC; WCH NC-1001, LLC; WCH NC-1002, LLC; WCH NC-1003, LLC; WCH NC-1004, LLC (Heritage Global Network Los Angeles, Inc. v. Taylor Welch; Chris Evans; Lance Welch; Wealth Cap Holdings, LLC; Wealth Cap Funds, LLC; Wealth Cap Fund 2, LLC; WCH AL-1001, LLC; WCH AL-1002, LLC; WCH AL-1003, LLC; WCH AL-1004, LLC; WCH MO-1001, LLC; WCH MO-1002, LLC; WCH MO-1003, LLC; WCH NC-1001, LLC; WCH NC-1002, LLC; WCH NC-1003, LLC; WCH NC-1004, LLC) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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