{"id":3011,"date":"2015-06-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-06-11T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/silverlaw.lawblogger.net\/blog\/sec-and-u-s-attorney-charge-miami-investment-advisor-in-ponzi-scheme-targeting-retired-public-sector-employees\/"},"modified":"2018-10-08T12:40:14","modified_gmt":"2018-10-08T16:40:14","slug":"sec-and-u-s-attorney-charge-miami-investment-advisor-in-ponzi-scheme-targeting-retired-public-sector-employees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.silverlaw.com\/blog\/sec-and-u-s-attorney-charge-miami-investment-advisor-in-ponzi-scheme-targeting-retired-public-sector-employees\/","title":{"rendered":"SEC and U.S. Attorney Charge Miami Investment Advisor in Ponzi Scheme Targeting Retired Public Sector Employees"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Southern District of Florida have each charged Miami-based investment advisor Phil Donnahue Williamson for his alleged role in a $2,000,000 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.silverlaw.com\/securities-arbitration\/ponzi-scheme\/\" target=\"_blank\">Ponzi scheme<\/a> that defrauded hundreds of retired public sector workers, including school teachers and law enforcement agents.<\/p>\n<p>According to the SEC and U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office, Williamson operated his scheme through two businesses \u2014 Sterling Investment Fund LLC and Sterling Financial Partners \u2014 that allegedly invested in distressed properties in Florida and Georgia.\u00a0 Between 2007 and 2014, Williamson advised the investors that they would be placing their retirement savings in the distressed properties; and he was able to raise more than $2 million.\u00a0 Some of the investors were former clients of Williamson\u2019s, some were referred by a former co-worker of his, and some approached him after he spoke at financial seminars hosted by churches.\u00a0 The investors allegedly wanted to safely invest their funds and keep those funds liquid, which Williamson purportedly said they could do in his \u201cno-risk\u201d investment strategy that would provide them yearly returns of 8 to 12 percent.<\/p>\n<p>As detailed in the SEC\u2019s lawsuit, the investors all agreed to pay Sterling a $25,000 membership subscription and signed documents allowing a trust company to rollover their retirement accounts.\u00a0 Without realizing it, though, the investors also authorized Williamson to deduct advisory fees; and he allegedly utilized that mechanism to siphon nearly $750,000 in fees from the investors.\u00a0 According to reports, Williamson used the stolen funds to pay for his children\u2019s school tuition, his mortgage, car payments, and to fund his other businesses along with making supposed distribution returns to investors.<\/p>\n<div class=\"read_more_link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.silverlaw.com\/blog\/sec-and-u-s-attorney-charge-miami-investment-advisor-in-ponzi-scheme-targeting-retired-public-sector-employees\/\"  title=\"Continue Reading SEC and U.S. Attorney Charge Miami Investment Advisor in Ponzi Scheme Targeting Retired Public Sector Employees\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading \u203a<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Southern District of Florida have each charged Miami-based investment advisor Phil Donnahue Williamson for his alleged role in a $2,000,000 Ponzi scheme that defrauded hundreds of retired public sector workers, including school teachers and law enforcement agents. According to the SEC [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[593],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ponzi-schemes"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Victim of Phil Williamson Ponzi Scheme?-Silver Law Group<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If you have questions about your legal rights or have been the victim of securities and investment fraud, call Silver Law Group today\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.silverlaw.com\/blog\/sec-and-u-s-attorney-charge-miami-investment-advisor-in-ponzi-scheme-targeting-retired-public-sector-employees\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Victim of Phil Williamson Ponzi Scheme?-Silver Law Group\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"If you have questions about your legal rights or have been the victim of securities and investment fraud, call Silver Law Group today\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Silver Law Group\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Victim of Phil Williamson Ponzi Scheme?-Silver Law Group","description":"If you have questions about your legal rights or have been the victim of securities and investment 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