Design Your Life
An alleged Ponzi schemer bagged $1 million a day with happy talk
“And the man in the suit has just bought a new car from the profit he's made on your dreams.” – Traffic, Low Spark of High Heeled Boys
Atlanta financial guru Russell Todd Burkhalter offered his clients a chance to design their lives, promising financial confidence, greater peace, stronger marriages, and a chance to feel better than ever.
“If you don’t design your life, someone else will,” he wrote in his 2020 book, Bullet Proof Your Finances: Confidence in Creating Financial Security.
He also demonstrated how designing a life is done.
Burkhalter spent more than $22 million on 250-acre cattle ranch in Mineral Bluff, Ga., to be leased for events. “The American ideas of God, country and prosperity,” was how the property was described on a website.
He also bought a $3.1 million yacht, which he named, “Live More,” and a $2 million condo in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. He spent $4.6 million on private jet rides and luxury car services. And the list goes on:
$319,628 on clothing, jewelry, and beauty treatments
$69,293 at Diamonds Direct
$75,785 at Louis Vuitton
$7,777 at Drip IV, a beauty and wellness company in St. Petersburg, Fla.
$183,871 on hotels and resorts
$92,127 to a Jaguar Land Rover dealer, $243,414 to Crown Automotive in St. Petersburg, Florida, and another $67,006 to Carvana
The money for Burkhalter’s life design came from his investors, according to a civil action filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday.
The SEC’s complaint claims Burkhalter’s firm, Drive Planning, was a $300 million Ponzi scheme impacting 2,000 investors. Burkhalter’s lawyers have denied the allegations and say their client is cooperating with the SEC.
It looks like he designed lives, all right ... just not for the better.
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