ST. LOUIS, MO
Bryan Binkholder, who labels himself as “The Financial Coach,” was sentenced on Friday to nine years in prison for deceiving the public through his websites, YouTube channel, books and his financial talk-radio show that aired on local stations, according to officials.
In addition to the prison sentence, Binkholder was also ordered to pay $3.6 million in restitution to the victims.
In 2008, the 43-year-old developed a real estate investment he termed “hard money lending,” officials said.
Using his platform as an investment advisor and financial talk show host, Binkholder solicited his clients and others to invest in the hard money lending program.
As part of his sales pitch, officials said he represented that he had relationships with developers in the real estate community who wanted to purchase, renovate and sell residential real estate in the St. Louis area, but were not able to secure financing from traditional banks.
As part of the hard money lending program, Binkholder told investors that they would invest money with him, and he would act as a bank and provide short term loans to these developers at a high rate of interest which would be shared with the investor.
Instead of exclusively making loans as promised, Binkholder took in millions of dollars of investor money, made only a small number of hard money loans and caused investors to lose more than $3 million.
Binkholder, 43, Wentzville, Missouri, pled guilty in January to four felony counts of wire fraud and one felony count of bank fraud.