Bryan Addington Pleads Guilty in Securities Fraud Case

As a result of an investigation conducted by the Securities Division of the Office of Financial Institutions, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Internal Revenue Service, Bryan Lee Addington of Ethel pled guilty to one count of mail fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft on March 6, 2017 before Senior U.S. District Judge James J. Brady.  According to his guilty plea, Addington admitted that from January 2010 through at least April 2016, he executed a fraudulent scheme to defraud victim investors through materially false and fraudulent pretenses, promises, and representations.  Throughout the scheme, as Addington solicited funds from clients, he failed to invest the investment funds as promised and instead sent them false account statements often addressed from non-existent post office boxes.  Addington purportedly paid distributions to his victims, but such distributions were often paid with money that actually belonged to other victim investors.  Addington also admitted to forging his associate’s signature for the purpose of furthering his fraud scheme. Addington fraudulently obtained approximately $8.5 million from his scheme.  No date for Addington’s sentencing has been set.