Georgia CEO wrote a book called ‘Bullet Proof Your Finances.’ Then he was sentenced to 20 years for a $380 million Ponzi scheme

A Georgia man who ran a real estate investment company has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for running a Ponzi scheme that took around $380 million from more than 2,000 investors.

Todd Burkhalter received the sentence in the Northern District of Georgia federal court. According to the Daily Mail, it is the maximum penalty allowed under his charges, and he will not be eligible for parole.

Burkhalter was the CEO of Drive Planning LLC, a Georgia-based financial advisory company. Prosecutors said the company sold fake real estate investment opportunities and paid earlier investors using money from new investors.

The scheme ran for nearly four years before regulators stepped in

US Attorney Theodore Hertzberg said in a press release from the US Attorney’s Office, “Todd Burkhalter lured investors to send millions of dollars to Drive Planning for investments that he knew didn’t actually exist.” Hertzberg also said, “The sentences in this case should discourage other financial advisors from choosing insatiable greed and lies over honest investment strategies.”

Marlo Graham, the special agent in charge of FBI Atlanta, said Burkhalter ran what she described as likely the largest Ponzi scheme in Georgia history.

Court records show Burkhalter spent investor money on personal items. This included $2 million on a yacht, $800,000 on luxury vehicles such as two 2024 Land Rovers and a 2020 Prevost Marathon motorcoach, and $320,000 on clothing, jewelry, and beauty treatments.

He also spent $2.1 million toward a luxury condo in Mexico and additional money on private jet travel. Cases like this show how fraud can quietly drain victims for years, similar to how one elderly couple lost their life savings to a scam that stripped them of nearly everything they had.

In April 2020, about six months before starting the Ponzi scheme, Burkhalter published a book titled Bullet Proof Your Finances. The book was marketed as a step-by-step guide to help readers build the financial life they want.

Between September 2020 and June 2024, Burkhalter promoted two main investment programs through Drive Planning. One was called the Real Estate Acceleration Loan, or REAL. The other was called the Cash Out Real Estate Fund, or CORE Fund. REAL promised a 10 percent return every three months. The CORE Fund promised either a 10 percent return every six months or a 22 percent return every year for up to three years.

Prosecutors said Burkhalter encouraged investors to use money from their children’s college funds and retirement accounts. He also encouraged some investors to take out loans at high interest rates to fund their investments.

Burkhalter told investors that REAL offered short-term loans to real estate developers who needed cash to finish or start projects. He said the investments were protected through collateral in real estate properties. To back this up, he showed investors “collateral sheets” listing properties tied to their money. 

Prosecutors said Burkhalter either did not own these properties or the properties did not exist at all. One Atlanta-based realtor filed a lawsuit against Burkhalter and Drive Planning after discovering that the company had used his name and property listings in these fake collateral sheets without permission.

The CORE Fund was marketed differently. Prosecutors said it falsely claimed to generate “100% Passive Income from Tax Liens” and was described to investors as government-protected and fully collateralized.

According to prosecutors, REAL operated as a Ponzi scheme from the very beginning. After receiving its first investment of $50,000, Burkhalter used $21,000 of it to pay a previous investor. Within the first few months of marketing REAL, he also used at least $80,000 to pay his ex-wife’s attorneys and to cover expenses tied to recreational vehicles. Prosecutors said no money invested in REAL ever went toward actual real estate projects.

The Securities and Exchange Commission began investigating Drive Planning and Burkhalter in March 2024. Despite the investigation, the company continued running the scheme and raised tens of millions of dollars in new investments. The SEC obtained a temporary restraining order against Drive Planning in August 2024 and filed civil enforcement actions against the company in federal court, which ended the fraud.

In addition to his prison sentence, Burkhalter was ordered to pay nearly $234 million in restitution to victims. After his release from prison, he will serve three years of supervised release. Large-scale fraud cases like this often carry long consequences for the people found responsible, much like a former football player’s 16-year sentence for running a separate scheme worth nearly $200 million.

Two other former Drive Planning executives were also sentenced this week. David Bradford, the company’s chief operating officer, received four years and three months in prison and was ordered to pay nearly $4.3 million in restitution after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Julie Edwards, the company’s chief administrative officer, was sentenced to two years in prison and ordered to pay $630,000 in restitution after pleading guilty to laundering proceeds from the scheme.

A court-appointed receiver is now in charge of trying to recover investor funds and selling off Drive Planning’s assets to repay the more than 2,000 people affected.