Law360 (December 18, 2025, 4:14 PM EST) — The former chief operating officer of a Georgia-based financial advisory group has pled guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, reaching a deal to resolve a federal case in which prosecutors alleged he ran a multi-year Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors out of millions of dollars.

Prosecutors brought charges against former Drive Planning LLC executive David Bradford in November, alleging he schemed to steal at least $4.1 million from investors from late 2021 until approximately June 2024. On Tuesday, Bradford pled guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, which carries a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment.

As part of the plea agreement, the government agreed not to bring further criminal charges against Bradford related to the scheme and to recommend he be sentenced to lesser time because of his acceptance of responsibility.

Bradford, for his part, agreed to cooperate truthfully and completely with the government going forward, including by producing records that may have evidentiary value, making himself available for interviews and testifying in future judicial proceedings if called upon to do so by the government. He also agreed to pay full restitution, the amount of which was not provided, and a $100 special assessment fee.

Should it find that any cooperation from Bradford qualifies as “substantial assistance” before he is sentenced on March 17, the government also agreed to recommend he face a lesser sentence. If substantial assistance was provided afterward, the government said it would file a motion for a reduction of whatever sentence Bradford receives.

In charging documents filed Nov. 12, prosecutors accused Bradford of marketing several Drive Planning investments, including one known as the “CORE Fund,” as easy, simple and providing “100% passive income from tax liens.” The company guaranteed investors a return of 10% every six months of a 22% return per year for up to three years, according to the filing, and claimed that investors’ funds in the CORE Fund were pooled together, government protected and fully collateralized.

In truth, prosecutors alleged investors’ funds were used to pay off other Drive Planning investors, make commission payments to its agents and pay for personal expenditures. Bradford and others at Drive Planning tried to conceal the fraud scheme, they said, by not disclosing that it failed to invest any funds in the CORE Fund after December 2022.

Even after the Securities and Exchange Commission launched an investigation into Drive Planning in 2024, prosecutors said Bradford and others continued to solicit CORE Fund investments. That August, the SEC obtained a temporary restraining order against Drive Planning and filed separate civil enforcement actions against it and others in federal court, records show.

U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia Theodore S. Hertzberg said in a statement that Bradford’s actions “betrayed the trust of his clients, family, and friends by encouraging them to make millions in bogus investments.”

“We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to investigate and aggressively prosecute all forms of investment fraud,” Hertzberg said.

Bradford’s sentencing is set for March 17 before U.S. District Judge Tiffany R. Johnson.

Representatives of Bradford did not respond immediately to requests for comment.

Bradford is represented by Daniel Patrick Griffin of Griffin Durham Tanner & Clarkson LLC and by Joshua A. Mayes of Robbins Alloy Belinfante Littlefield LLC.

The government is represented by Theodore S. Hertzberg and Alex R. Sistla of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia.

Read more at: https://www.law360.com/georgia/articles/2423426/ex-finance-exec-pleads-guilty-in-4-million-fraud-case?copied=1