An Alpharetta man, identified as Russell Todd Burkhalter, stands accused by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of masterminding a large-scale Ponzi scheme through his company, Drive Planning LLC, swindling investors out of $300 million. According to the SEC allegations, the scheme began around mid-2020 and continued up to June 2024, with promises to investors of a 10% interest every three months on purported real estate investments, as reported by Atlanta News First.
The reality of the operation, as the SEC puts forth, was a sidestepping extravaganza involving funds from new investors being redirected to pay previous investors, while Burkhalter allegedly siphoned off millions to support his personal luxuries. Detailed in the SEC's lawsuit are extravagant purchases including a $3.1 million yacht and a luxury condo worth $2 million, and an additional $4.6 million that was allegedly spent on luxury jets and car services. Boasting that customers could participate with a minimum of $20,000, advertisements promoted tapping into personal savings, retirement funds, and credit lines—a lure that more than 2,000 investors seemingly bit into, based on the SEC's findings obtained by Atlanta News First.
Federal authorities have secured a preliminary injunction to freeze the assets of Burkhalter and Drive Planning. Nekia Hackworth Jones, Regional Director for the SEC, stated that Drive Planning and Burkhalter gained the trust of everyday people and encouraged them to invest in the scheme by promising exorbitant returns. However, as our complaint alleges, the defendants' business was nothing more than a classic Ponzi scheme, using new investor money to pay returns to existing investors, as reported by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
In an investment pitch named REAL—an acronym for Real Estate Acceleration Loan—Burkhalter and his company Drive Planning marketed the venture as a real estate investment to be used for various development projects. High returns were promised in return, but the SEC lawsuit reveals that, Burkhalter and Drive Planning did not possess a business that was capable of generating such returns. Rather, investor payouts were derived from contributions made by newer victims of the scheme. Meanwhile, the company continued encouraging existing investors to reinvest or "roll over" their returns.
Following these revelations, the SEC is pushing for "permanent injunctions, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains with prejudgment interest, and civil penalties against the defendants, and an officer-and-director bar against Burkhalter," as per Atlanta News First. Relevant online footprints of Drive Planning, such as its website and social media pages, appear to have been erased amidst the investigations. Multiple attempts to reach Burkhalter and representatives of Drive Planning for comment yielded no response.
