This Week's Crook
The “Guaranteed” 10 Percent Every Three Months
A real estate “bridge loan,” sold by more than 100 commissioned “financial consultants,” paid for with people's IRAs. It was a Ponzi scheme from the first deposit.
The Pitch
Lend your money to real estate developers for three months and collect a guaranteed 10 percent. Do it again next quarter. Your money is fully collateralized by real estate. You don't need to be a millionaire or an accredited investor. If you have $20,000, you can get in.
The product was called REAL, short for Real Estate Acceleration Loan, and it was sold by a Georgia company called Drive Planning that described itself as a financial advisory group. Investors were encouraged to pay for it with their savings, their retirement accounts, early withdrawals from those accounts, lines of credit, and even their children's college funds. About $66.9 million came out of retirement accounts, according to the SEC.
Who Sold It
Not a lone con man in a back room. The SEC says more than 100 sales agents, called “financial consultants” on the company's website, sold it in at least 48 states. They were paid a 4 percent commission on every sale, including when an investor rolled his money over for another three months. Top sellers earned trips through the “President's Club” and the “Chairman's Council.”
The salesman sitting across from you believed in it, or said he did. He was also paid every time you said yes, and paid again every time you didn't take your money out.
What Actually Happened to the Money
From September 2020 to June 2024, more than 2,000 people handed over about $380 million. None of the REAL money went to bridge loans or developer deals. The federal court records show it was a Ponzi scheme from the very first investment: of the first $50,000 that came in, about $21,000 went to repay an earlier investor.
The “collateral sheets” investors were shown listed properties that did not exist, with made-up values. The company even used the name of a well-known Atlanta developer, which sued to make it stop. Meanwhile, investor money paid for a yacht, a condo in Cabo San Lucas, a luxury motorcoach, two Land Rovers, private jets, clothing and jewelry.
When the money got tight, a second product appeared: a tax-lien fund promising another guaranteed 10 percent every six months. The company stopped investing that money in December 2022 and never told the people who put it in.
How It Ended
The SEC sued in August 2024 and a federal judge froze the assets and appointed a receiver, who is still trying to recover money for investors. The company kept raising money even after the SEC started asking questions.
The man behind it pleaded guilty to wire fraud. On August 14, 2026, he was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison, the maximum, and ordered to pay about $233.8 million in restitution. Two of his top officers pleaded guilty too and were sentenced to prison. The FBI called it likely the largest Ponzi scheme in Georgia history.
Why It Worked
Because it sounded careful. Short terms. Real estate. Collateral. A brochure, training seminars, and a friendly local “consultant” with a title. Every one of those details was there to make a 40 percent-a-year promise sound safe.
Sources
Every fact in this story comes from the public record. Read it for yourself:
- SEC press release 2024-97 (August 14, 2024)
- SEC Litigation Release No. 26076
- SEC complaint, No. 1:24-cv-03583 (N.D. Ga.)
- SEC Litigation Release No. 26456 (December 30, 2025)
- U.S. Attorney, N.D. Ga.: guilty plea (January 21, 2026)
- U.S. Attorney, N.D. Ga.: sentencings (August 14, 2026)
A charge or complaint is an allegation, not a finding, unless we say a court, regulator or jury decided it.