Brooklyn Chandler Willy, a former financial aid, has pleaded guilty to a Ponzi scheme, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office, facing up to 20 years in prison.
SAN ANTONIO — A San Antonio woman who used to be a financial aid has pleaded guilty for her role in a Ponzi scheme, the U.S. Attorney’s office says.
46-year-old Brooklyn Chandler Willy was the owner of a company named Queen B Advisors LLC based in San Antonio, according to court documents. The company did business as Texas Financial Advisory (TFA) and Chandler Capital Holdings. One of the services TFA does is to “provide asset management and financial planning services.”
Court documents say that Willy recommended a married couple invest money into an investment company named Ferrum Capital in March 2018. This company was one of four to allegedly be run by co-defendants Joshua Allen and Michael Cox.
In May 2021, Willy advised the same couple to invest $500,000 with another Ferrum entity, “using Chandler Capital Holdings as the agent to execute and deliver contracts.”
Rather than investing the funds as intended, court documents say Willy used the $500,000 to pay personal credit card payments, payments to other investors and payments to another business owned and controlled by Willy.
Willy then convinced another married couple to invest about $2 million in an associate’s company, court documents say. She did this “by promising that the investment would be used for the purchase of bad debt and other legitimate investments.” Instead she used the money for her own benefit, court documents say.
Willy also convinced two other investors to invest $75,000 and $600,000 into “business investments.” These funds were used for Willy’s benefit again, according to court documents.
During the investigation into this scheme, court documents say Willy forged the signatures of several victims on documents and provided those documents to federal agents, trying to mislead them.
She also conspired with Allen and Cox by lying to investors concerning their investment in entities owned by Allen and Cox.
Willy pleaded guilty to 10 counts of fraud on Feb. 25. She faces up to 20 years in prison on each of the six wire fraud charges, the wire fraud conspiracy charge and the money laundering conspiracy charge. She also faces up to 10 years for engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from the wire fraud scheme. She also faces a mandatory minimum of two years in prison for aggravated identity theft which would run consecutive to any other punishment.
