Dallas Man Indicted in East Texas Investment Fraud Scheme
SHERMAN, Texas – A 51-year-old Dallas man has been indicted for investment fraud in the Eastern District of Texas, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Brit Featherston today.
Carlton Chadbourne Sayers, also known as Chad Sayers was indicted by a federal grand jury on Mar. 8, 2017, and charged with wire fraud, mail fraud, bank fraud, and aggravated identity. The indictment was unsealed on Mar. 15, 2017, and Sayers was arraigned before U.S. Magistrate Judge Christine Nowak and entered a plea of not guilty on Mar. 16, 2017.
According to the indictment and information presented in court, Sayers is alleged to have devised a scheme to defraud numerous victims by requesting that individuals loan to or invest money with him and Wellington and Franklin Financial, a business that he controlled, representing that this money would be used to purchase and/or renovate various residential real properties, to be secured by an interest in the property. The indictment also alleges that Sayers would promise a significant rate of return (such as ten percent) to the investors, and would frequently secure multiple investments based on a single piece of real property. As set out in the indictment, however, Sayers did not invest the funds as he had represented to investors and did not provide the secured interests in real property as he represented to the investors. On some occasions, as set forth in the indictment, when Wellington and Franklin Financial or Sayers did actually own the residential properties, the property had been purchased with a pre-existing loan from a seasoned investor, and was already acting as security to that investor. Sayers is also alleged to have defrauded dozens of victims with little experience in real estate investments, who were induced by Sayers’s false claims of a secure investment, purportedly backed by the assignment of an interest in the respective real estate asset and returns that were considerably higher than what they could achieve through many other investments. The scheme is alleged to have resulted in substantial losses of over $3 million affecting dozens of victims.
If convicted, Sayers faces up to 30 years in federal prison. The maximum statutory sentence prescribed by Congress is provided here for information purposes, as the sentencing will be determined by the court based on the advisory sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the U.S. Probation Office.
This case is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Gibson.
An indictment is not evidence of guilt. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.