{"id":11768,"date":"2015-05-05T17:55:53","date_gmt":"2015-05-06T00:55:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=11768"},"modified":"2015-05-05T17:55:53","modified_gmt":"2015-05-06T00:55:53","slug":"former-ceo-of-brokerage-firm-admits-to-illegally-pocketing-millions-of-dollars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=11768","title":{"rendered":"Former CEO of Brokerage Firm Admits to Illegally Pocketing Millions of Dollars"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/U.S.-Justice-Dept-e1394578665196.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-1499\" src=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/U.S.-Justice-Dept-e1394578665196-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"U.S. Justice Dept\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>LOS ANGELES \u2013 <\/strong>The former president and CEO of the Sherman Oaks-based<strong> Morgan Peabody, Inc.<\/strong> brokerage firm \u00a0plead guilty to federal wire fraud charges stemming from a real estate investment scam that resulted in about five dozen investors losing nearly $4 million, officials announced Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p><strong>David Williams<\/strong>, 54, of Studio City, a licensed securities dealer and investment adviser, plead guilty Monday.\u00a0Williams decided to plead guilty in the middle of a jury trial to three counts of wire fraud and two counts of tax evasion, according to authorities.<\/p>\n<p><strong>U.S District Judge Dale Fisher<\/strong> is scheduled to sentence Williams on September 28. He \u00a0faces up to 70 years in federal prison.<\/p>\n<p>The fraud took place between June 2007 and April 2008, officials said.<\/p>\n<p>Between June 2007 and April 2008, Williams fraudulently obtained more than $3.75 million from approximately 60 investors as a result of the Sherwood Fund offering.<\/p>\n<p><strong>In a plea agreement,Williams admitted that he did the following things:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>He directed Morgan Peabody representatives to sell securities in a fund that Williams personally had created to invest in real estate, according to authorities.<\/li>\n<li>The<strong> Sherwood Secured Investment Fund, LLC<\/strong>, a Studio City business that Williams owned, offered a 9 percent annual return on investments.<\/li>\n<li>Williams used the majority of investor money from the Sherwood Fund to pay for personal expenses, including a lease on a $6 million residence in Toluca Lake.<\/li>\n<li>Williams also admitted that he failed to file returns with the IRS for tax years 2007 and 2008, and failed to report more than $2.3 million in income he received.<\/li>\n<li>Williams has agreed to pay additional taxes of $777,881 for those tax years, as well as the penalties and interest.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LOS ANGELES \u2013 The former president and CEO of the Sherman Oaks-based Morgan Peabody, Inc. brokerage firm \u00a0plead guilty to federal wire fraud charges stemming from a real estate investment scam that&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7271,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,16,48,3],"tags":[1354,229],"class_list":["post-11768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fbi","category-home-main-slider","category-irs","category-u-s-department-of-justice","tag-real-estate-scam","tag-wire-fraud"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Former CEO of Brokerage Firm Guilty of Embezzlement<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A former president and CEO of a brokerage firm plead guilty to pocketing millions of dollars of investors&#039; 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