The Frankowski Firm is currently representing a number of claimants in a case against Bryan Anderson of Hoover, Alabama. Anderson was charged today with one count each of wire fraud, securities fraud, and money laundering relating to a Ponzi scheme he operated through which he swindled investors out of over three million dollars, according to federal and state officials.
Anderson reached a plea bargain with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and has agreed to plead guilty. According to the agreement, Anderson will pay $3.1 million in restitution to his victims as well as the same amount to the government as proceeds from illegal activity. He will also pay an additional $368,000, the amount corresponding to the money laundering charge.
According to court documents, the scheme operated from 2009 to May 30, 2014. During that time, Anderson was a registered financial broker with MetLife Securities from October 1998 to February 2012 and then Pruco Securities from February 2012 to September 2012, when Pruco terminated his employment.
Anderson solicited his victims to invest in stock options that he claimed employed various trading strategies. The stock options he described, however, were not registered securities, and he was not allowed to solicit investor money for the funds.
Anderson further offered investments in his own company, 360 Properties. Starting in 2009, he misrepresented to a number of these investors that their returns would come from leased property income, when there were, in fact, no such properties.
From 2009 to 2014, eighteen individual and family investors gave Anderson over $8.4 million, which he deposited into an account he held with his wife at BancorpSouth. At the time the scheme crumbled, roughly twelve investors had lost about $3.1 million.
Anderson’s scheme operated as a Ponzi scheme in that he paid returns to existing investors with money from new investors, as well as paying for his own personal expenses. He transferred investor money from one of his and his wife’s bank accounts to another, making only a small percentage of the investments he had promised investors.
FBI Special Agent Richard D. Schwein, Jr. stated that the case was a “classic Ponzi scheme, as Anderson used false promises and fake returns to steal millions of dollars from his victims.”
Joseph Borg, the director of the Alabama Securities Commission, added that “the Alabama Securities Commission is gratified to see justice imposed for the crimes that Bryan Anderson committed against innocent citizens of Alabama and other states; of course, no punishment can take away the loss and hurt to the investors who were victimized.”
The investigation was performed as a joint effort between the Alabama Securities Commission, Hoover Police Department, FBI, and U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Alabama.
If you or someone you know has lost money as a result of an investment or Ponzi scheme, please contact Richard Frankowski at 888-741-7503 to discuss your potential legal remedies or complete the contact form.