A Georgia-based financial advisor pleaded guilty to a $380 million fraud that victimized thousands of investors, in what officials said was potentially the worst Ponzi scheme in state history.
Todd Burkhalter, the founder and CEO of the Georgia-based firm Drive Planning, pleaded guilty to wire fraud last week. According to the Justice Department, Burkhalter used the illicit earnings to purchase a yacht, a condo and vehicles, among other things.
“Todd Burkhalter perpetrated what is likely the largest Ponzi scheme in Georgia history,” U.S. Attorney Theodore Hertzberg said. “Unbelievably, Burkhalter shamelessly continued to scam his victims even while under federal investigation.”
According to the charges, between September 2020 and June 2024, Drive Planning marketed investment opportunities like the “Real Estate Acceleration Loan” (REAL) and the “Cash Out Real Estate Fund” (CORE).
Burkhalter falsely claimed that REAL was a bridge loan fund that offered short-term loans to real estate developers who needed immediate cash flow. In reality, Burkhalter continuously operated REAL as a Ponzi scheme; the funds were never used for the purposes he claimed.
Burkhalter promised investors 10% guaranteed returns every three months, and falsely claimed investors’ funds were collateralized by real estate. Burkhalter would even go as far as to prepare “collateral sheets” identifying properties (some of which didn’t exist), with fictitious valuations acting as collateral.
The firm also lied about its relationship with a prominent Atlanta-based real estate developer, claiming that investors’ funds were secured by property in the developer’s portfolio. (The developer eventually sued Drive Planning and Burkhalter for the false claims.)
With the CORE Fund, Drive Planning claimed it provided 100% “passive income from tax liens,” with guaranteed returns of 10% every six months or a 22% annual return for three years. However, Burkhalter and Drive Planning didn’t disclose that they stopped investing funds in CORE after December 2022, instead pocketing about $4.1 million from investors.
From the start of the scheme, Burkhalter used investors’ funds for private expenses, including $80,000 to pay his ex-wife’s attorneys and buy recreational vehicles (as well as paying existing investors with new investors’ funds in a Ponzi-like fashion).
He also spent about $2 million on a yacht named “Stillwater” (that Burkhalter later rechristened “Live More”), $2.1 million on a luxury condo in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, $800,000 on luxury vehicles, including a 2020 Prevost Marathon motorcoach and two 2024 Land Rovers, millions on luxury travel, including chartering private jets, and $320,000 on clothing, jewelry and beauty treatments.
The Securities and Exchange Commission began investigating Burkhalter and Drive Planning in March 2024 (according to the commission’s complaint, Burkhalter also used investor funds to buy a ranch in Mineral Bluff, Ga., and to build a barn doubling as an event space on the property).
Despite the investigation, Burkhalter continued to solicit funds, eventually defrauding more than 2,000 investors of about $380 million. The SEC charged Burkhalter in August 2024.
The scheme’s impact spread beyond Georgia’s borders. According to an ABC affiliate in Tampa Bay, Fla., the Tampa Bay Rays returned about $200,000 in payment Drive Planning made to the Major League Baseball team to market the company as part of a court settlement (the article cited an Instagram post Burkhalter made in 2024 touting ads for the firm behind home base).
Additionally, an Indianapolis ABC affiliate reported last summer on a class action lawsuit filed by Drive Planning clients in the state, alleging that a managing director for the firm encouraged “countless” people to invest, resulting in losses of vast sums of money.
According to ABC, Geraldo “Gerry” Linarducci filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy in June 2025, which has paused the class action suit against the former managing director (though a judge ruled that suits against Linarducci’s Indiana-based firms, Integrity Wealth Partners and Ducci Enterprise, could continue).
In an interview, investor and Indiana resident Patrick McLoughlin told reporters that Lindarducci ruined what he’d hoped would be “a secure future” for his family, saying he’d recently sold his house to move in his wife and “fell for” the 10% interest claim, investing the proceeds of the house sale.
Burkhalter’s sentencing date hasn’t been scheduled; under his plea agreement, the Justice Department has promised to recommend a sentence of 17 1/2 years in prison. David Bradford, Drive Planning’s former chief operating officer, also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud late last year and will be sentenced in March.
