Legal Question in Investment Law in California

Re: No compensation for introducing investment to project

Your ability to sue to recover damages (or otherwise enforce any rights you may have had) is likely to be cut off by the various statutes of limitations.

A statute of limitations is a law that requires that a lawsuit be commenced within a certain time period after the "cause of action" (reason for bringing a lawsuit) arises. In the case of fraud, for example, the limitations period begins when the defrauded person discovered or, with reasonable diligence, should have discovered the fraud. With contracts, the cause of action arises upon a substantial breach of the contract. Typical limitations periods are three years for fraud, two years for an oral contract, and four years for a suit based upon a written contract.

However, it isn't as simple as this sounds. Many circumstances can "toll" (stall or delay) the running of the time. Calculating when the time begins is often factually tricky. Sometimes, the same facts can be pleaded as a cause of action with an unexpired limitations period when the time for filing suit under a more obvious legal theory has run out. Some causes of action are self-renewing, e.g. if you had a written partnership agreement with these people, and the agreement were being breached, you could (probably) sue at any time to have an accounting and dissolution, under which you would be entitled to your share of accumulated profits.

Without more information, I couldn't comment on the inherent merits of your claims or potential claims against these individuals. However, you should have them professionally evaluated by a business lawyer before any more time elapses.