Georgia advisor gets 20 years for $400 million Ponzi

The Justice Department says Todd Burkhalter's Ponzi scheme cost thousands of investors close to $400 million. On Friday, a federal judge gave the 55-year-old St. Petersburg, Florida, resident the maximum sentence: 20 years in prison. Burkhalter founded and ran Drive Planning, a Georgia-based advisory group; InvestmentNews first reported the sentencing.

From September 2020 to June 2024, the scheme revolved around two products: the Real Estate Acceleration Loan (REAL) and the Cash Out Real Estate Fund (CORE Fund). Drive Planning pitched them as 'easy and simple,' advertised no accredited-investor requirement, and suggested retirement accounts, savings, or lines of credit to fund participation.

Drive Planning looked like a functioning firm. It employed a chief operating officer, David Bradford, and a chief administrative officer, Julie Edwards. Both were sentenced to prison last week alongside Burkhalter.

The Department of Justice says REAL was a Ponzi from the first wire. Of the initial $50,000 an investor put in, Burkhalter used at least $21,000 to repay an earlier Drive Planning investor. Not one dollar of REAL money went to bridge loans or joint ventures with developers. In the first two months, at least $80,000 went to his ex-wife's attorneys and to recreational-vehicle expenses.

The money followed the usual Ponzi path: earlier investors got paid, agents got commissions, and Burkhalter covered personal costs. The DOJ's tally includes a yacht that ran about $2 million.

Bradford pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in the CORE Fund scheme; his sentence is four years and three months. Edwards, who pleaded guilty to laundering the proceeds, got two years. A judge ordered Burkhalter to pay $233.8 million in restitution.

FBI Atlanta Special Agent in Charge Marlo Graham called it 'likely the largest Ponzi scheme in Georgia history' and noted Burkhalter kept exploiting victims while under federal investigation. The case rested on retail money: the pitch aimed ordinary investors at retirement accounts and credit lines, not at an accredited-investor minimum.

Drive Planning marketed a private real-estate debt product as 'easy and simple,' waived the accreditation barrier, suggested borrowed money as a source of funds, and paid its own agents commissions from the inflow.

For compliance officers, the first $50,000 wire is the one to remember. From that first investment, at least $21,000 went to repay a prior Drive Planning investor. A real estate loan product that, from its first investment, was used to repay a prior investor is not a product at all.