INDIANAPOLIS – A Lebanon man was sentenced to more than 7 years in prison for running a “Ponzi-like” investment scheme.
Brian Simms pleaded guilty to a single count of wire fraud in the case. In exchange for his guilty plea, other wire fraud counts were dismissed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
A federal judge sentenced Simms to 90 months (7.5 years) in federal prison with three years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay $2.6 million in restitution.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Indiana Securities Division worked in conjunction to investigate the case.
“Simms’s sentence reflects the ongoing efforts of collaboration between law enforcement agencies to protect Hoosier investors,” said Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales. “The Securities Division will continue to work with our partner agencies to investigate these types of crime and ensure investment fraud is investigated and disrupted.”
According to previous reports, federal prosecutors announced charges against Simms in September 2022. He ran Brendanwood Financial Brokerage LLC in Carmel, and while he was a licensed insurance broker, he was not licensed to sell securities or registered to provide financial advising services.
But Simms, prosecutors said, convinced 20 people to liquidate their assets and give his company their money to reinvest it. The amounts contributed by the victims ranged between $15,000 and $1.4 million.
Simms used the money for personal expenses and made Ponzi-like payments to other investors. The investors believed the money was a return on their investment when it was, in fact, money Simms had obtained from other people.
He presented his victims with falsified financial statements to keep up the charade, prosecutors said.
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