The allegations read: Plaintiff, the united states securities and exchange commission (commission or sec), alleges that from 2020 through at least june 2024, defendant russell todd burkhalter (burkhalter) ran a ponzi scheme through his business, drive planning, llc (drive planning), selling unregistered securities in the form of real estate acceleration loans (real), which burkhalter described in promotional materials as a bridge loan opportunity promising 10% in 3 months. As of the end of june 2024, over 2,000 investors had invested more than $300,000,000 in real. Defendants encouraged people to tap their savings, their iras, and even lines of credit, to invest in real. As of early may 2024, the scheme was receiving applications for over a million dollars every day, driven by an organization of more than 100 sales agents. Defendants and the sales agents they trained falsely told real investors that drive planning pooled real investments and loaned that money out to property developers and/or used it to enter into joint ventures with property developers, thereby earning the profits necessary to pay returns to real investors. In fact, drive planning did not have any legitimate profitable enterprise capable of generating the sums necessary to pay the promised 10 percent returns every three months. Instead, in classic ponzi fashion, burkhalter used money from new investors to pay the supposed "returns" to existing investors and to maintain a luxurious lifestyle. Emergency relief is necessary. While burkhalter pledged, on june 10, 2024, to cease accepting new investments in real, and to cease paying commissions or paying supposed returns to investors, he nevertheless paid sales commissions to drive planning sales agents on june 21, 2024. Moreover, burkhalter remains a signatory on bank accounts containing millions of dollars of investor funds and has recently entered into a divorce settlement pursuant to which he may transfer to his spouse property bought with investor funds. There is a serious risk of dissipation of assets that could, if preserved, help fund investor redress. Given the scope and duration of this ponzi scheme, an asset freeze and a receiver are necessary to gather, preserve and protect whatever assets still exist for the benefit of the victims of the defendants' ponzi scheme.
