orchestrated one of Georgia\u2019s largest schemes<\/a> and stole millions from over 2,000 investors in the years-long con.<\/p>\nBurkhalter, 59, was ordered to serve two decades in federal prison by US District Court Judge Tiffany R. Johnson, while two of his executives were sentenced to less than five years for their roles this week.<\/p>\n
Drive Planning CEO Todd Burkhalter was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for orchestrating a $380 million Ponzi scheme. Instagram\/toddburkhalter<\/p>\n
Burkhalter\u2019s attorneys had asked for a 14-year sentence while federal prosecutors recommended 17 and a half years as part of a plea deal back in January.<\/p>\n
\u201cTodd Burkhalter organized what is likely the largest Ponzi scheme in Georgia history to fund an extravagant lifestyle.\u00a0He even continued to exploit victims while under federal investigation,\u201d Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta Marlo Graham said.<\/p>\n
The Florida executive had pleaded to wire fraud charges following a years-long investigation into the shady ventures.<\/p>\n
Between September 2020 and June 2024, Drive Planning marketed investment opportunities to potential investors to secure nearly $400 million in funds, even immediately using the money to pay off early investors.<\/p>\n
Burkhalter then used the pool of cash for high-end personal spending, including buying a $2 million yacht, a $2.1 million condo in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, dropped $800,000 on vehicles, including a motorcoach and two Land Rovers.<\/p>\n
He also spent millions on luxury travel, chartering private jets, $800,000 to pay his ex-wife\u2019s attorney and another $320,000 on clothing, jewelry, and beauty treatments.<\/p>\n
Burkhalter used the pool of cash for high-end personal spending including for luxury travel. Instagram\/toddburkhalter<\/p>\n
Two of the investment options pushed on victims were the \u201cReal Estate Acceleration Loan\u201d opportunity (\u201cREAL\u201d) and the \u201cCash Out Real Estate Fund\u201d (\u201cCORE Fund\u201d)<\/p>\n
Burkhalter and crew claimed the investments were \u201ceasy and simple,\u201d and encouraged their victims to use money from retirement accounts, savings, and lines of credit.<\/p>\n
REAL was the primary investment vehicle Burkhalter used in the scheme as short term-loans \u2013 bridge loans \u2013 while CORE Fund was promised to provide \u201c100% Passive Income from Tax Liens.\u201d\u00a0 <\/p>\n
\u201cBurkhalter and Drive Planning deceived investors into believing their investments were safe by claiming they were fully collateralized by real estate,\u201d the Northern Georgia US Attorney\u2019s Office said. \u201cTo perpetuate these lies, Burkhalter directed Drive Planning to prepare fraudulent \u2018collateral sheets\u2019 identifying properties\u2014some of which did not even exist\u2014 with fictitious valuations that purportedly served as collateral for investments.\u201d<\/p>\n
Burkhalter and crew claimed the investments were \u201ceasy and simple,\u201d and encouraged their victims to use money from retirement accounts, savings, and lines of credit. Instagram\/toddburkhalter<\/p>\n
COO David Bradford and CEO Todd Burkhalter speak before their arrests in the Ponzi scheme. Facebook\/Todd Burkhalter<\/p>\n
Drive Planning COO David Bradford helped Burkhalter in the CORE Fund ruse that stole $4.1 million from investors<\/p>\n
Bradford, a 53-year-old pastor and father of six, pleaded guilty in December to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.<\/p>\n
He was sentenced to four years behind bars and was ordered to pay $4,297,878.16 in restitution to victims, some of whom he had met in church.<\/p>\n
Bradford branded himself a \u201ccoward\u201d<\/a> for being a part of the scheme.<\/p>\n\u00a0\u201cI participated in that fraud and I benefited from it, and there\u2019s no excuse for what I did. I deceived myself and, in turn, I deceived the people who trusted me,\u201d he said during his sentencing hearing.<\/p>\n
Drive Planning Chief Administrative Officer Julie Edwards was sentenced to two years in federal prison for her role in the scheme of laundering proceeds and used $630,000 of the investors\u2019 funds to purchase a home in Cumming, Ga.<\/p>\n
All three con artists will face three years of supervised release after their prison sentences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Georgia financial advising CEO was sentenced Friday to 20 years behind bars for masterminding a $380 million…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1001931,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[6],"tags":[5356,64,6764,723,4353,401217,125516,67,132,68,1154],"class_list":["post-1001930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-atlanta","tag-business","tag-financial-planning","tag-florida","tag-georgia","tag-ponzi-schemes","tag-sentences","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-us-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117098368916132638","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1001930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1001930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1001930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1001931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1001930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1001930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1001930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}