Seven years ago, San Antonio, Texas, resident Cheryl Lankford made what she thought was a secure investment in her future.

What it actually turned out to be was one of the biggest financial mistakes of her life—one with close ties to Republican nominee Donald Trump.

It began in 2007. Lankford’s husband, Command Sergeant Major Jonathan Miles Lankford, had served in the army for 23 years when he died of a sudden heart attack while stationed in Iraq. Faced with the abrupt and devastating loss of her husband of eight years, Lankford had to cope with her new life without him. Now the sole provider for her then two-year-old son, the two had to leave the military installation that had been their home and settle into a new civilian life.

As an army widow, Lankford was eligible for a monetary payment granted to the families of deceased soldiers—many of whom rely on the income from these service members to keep their families afloat. After using the funds to purchase a new home and pay other expenses, Lankford hoped to utilize the remaining money to invest in new opportunities for herself—including starting her own real estate business. In 2008, she founded Lankford Land Development, LLC, a real estate firm based in San Antonio that she hoped to grow into a robust commercial and residential development company. Though small, Lankford Land Development soon caught the attention of one major organization: Trump University.

Founded in 2004 by Donald Trump and several of his business associates, the for-profit university operated between 2005 and 2011 and boasted a curriculum that would give students the tools they needed to achieve real estate successes comparable to Trump’s. Lankford was first contacted by the organization in 2009, receiving postcards and phone calls from representatives urging her to attend an introductory seminar. Wanting to build her own business—and recognizing Donald Trump’s status as a public figure known for his business prowess and real estate deals (as well as a massive fortune)—Lankford agreed to hear what the representatives had to say.

“It was like dangling a carrot in front of somebody.”

In the grand ballroom of a downtown San Antonio hotel, Lankford joined fellow Texans who worked in real estate—and others who were interested in pursuing the field—to learn what Trump University could offer them.

Claiming to have been trained by Donald Trump himself, a team of instructors offered the prospective students several different instructional packages, placing extra emphasis on an exclusive and comprehensive option being offered at a special, once-in-a-lifetime price of $35,000—a technique that was later revealed to be the signature move in the Trump guide to sales pitching. Tuition had to be paid upfront, and the would-be students were encouraged to get the money by any means necessary—be it borrowing from friends or family, extending their credit limits, withdrawing money from their 401k accounts, or taking out home equity loans.

“I remember them not giving us any real information,” Lankford says, “But they were very adamant about what they knew. Saying things like: ‘I know how to buy a house in a short sale. I know how to buy foreclosed properties. I know how to buy depressed properties.’ I will admit that they were great salesmen, but they never gave specifics.”

She adds, "It was like dangling a carrot in front of somebody.”

Intrigued by the program and hopeful that it could help her develop her own small business, Lankford decided to invest $35,000 of the money she received following her husband’s death and enroll in Trump University. She was promised a mentor—someone allegedly hand-picked by Trump himself—who would reach out to her immediately after she enrolled and then guide her through at least four real estate transactions. She was also promised that, in working with her mentor, she would recoup all the money she had put out for the initial investment. However, after enrolling and paying the $35,000, these promises were soon broken.