The chief executive and founder of an Atlanta-based financial consulting firm is also the leader of a $300 million Ponzi scheme who used investors’ cash to fund his own luxurious lifestyle, according to federal regulators. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Wednesday charged CEO and founder Todd Burkhalter for violating antifraud protections. Both Burkhalter’s assets and those of his company’s — which the SEC alleges is its founder’s “alter ego” — have been frozen.
Over the past four years, Burkhalter sold unregistered securities, which he described as a “bridge loan opportunity promising 10% in 3 months,” according to the SEC’s filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.
By the end of June, more than 2,000 people had invested more than $300 million. Drive Planning’s team of more than 100 sales agents encouraged people to tap their savings for the securities and claimed that the company pooled the investments and loaned the money out to property developers to make profits. In reality, money from new investors was used to pay returns to existing investors and fund Burkhalter’s lifestyle, the complaint says.
[T]he defendants’ business was nothing more than a classic Ponzi scheme, using new investor money to pay returns to existing investors, with Burkhalter stealing millions to fund a lavish lifestyle,” Nekia Hackworth Jones, the director of the SEC’s Atlanta office, said in a statement. In a section of the complaint aptly titled “Spending Other People’s Money,” the SEC laid out some of Burkhalter’s alleged misappropriation of funds. That includes a $3.
1 million transfer to a boat dealer for a yacht named the “Stillwater,” which he renamed to “Live More.” Drive Planning also spent almost $320,000 on clothing, jewelry, and beauty treatments, including $75,785 at Louis Vuitton, and $4.6 million to charter private jets and luxury cars.
Hundreds of thousands of additional dollars were spent on hotels and resorts and car-related expenses, the SEC said. Burkhalter used investor funds to buy a clothing store owned by Blue Ridge, Georgia-based TBR Supply House. Another $1.
45 million was wired to private jet seller , a company, according to the complaint. Investor funds were also used to buy Burkhalter a ranch in Mineral Bluff, Georgia, where he owns a large barn — funded by investor cash — that he . And at least $2 million in investor funds were used to buy him a luxury condo in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, the SEC said.
The SEC claims Burkhalter has used or plans to use real estate he bought with investor cash to fund his obligations under a divorce settlement. At least $6.6 million of Drive Planning’s funds were used to buy real estate under Burkhalter and his now-ex wife’s names.
Burkhalter and Drive Planning did not immediately return a request for comment. 📬 Sign up for the Daily Brief Our free, fast, and fun briefing on the global economy, delivered every weekday morning..
