By Kenneth Corbin
A former Texas financial advisor and radio personality has pleaded guilty to 10 counts of fraud and other charges in connection with a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme. Brooklynn Willy, 46, of San Antonio, pitched victims on a series of bogus investment opportunities, using the money she collected for personal expenses and to repay earlier investors, according to prosecutors.
Willy entered a guilty plea last Thursday in federal court in Texas for her role in the scheme.
Willy operated through an advisory firm called Queen B Advisors, which did business as Texas Financial Advisory, and another entity called Chandler Capital Holdings. The scheme involved soliciting funds for an investment company called Ferrum Capital, which was one of an array of firms allegedly run by Willy's co-defendants Joshua Allen and Michael Cox, who are scheduled for a jury trial later this summer, according to the Justice Department.
Lawyers for Willy, Allen, and Cox didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Justice Department highlighted examples of Willy's activities, including convincing a married couple to invest heavily in Ferrum entities and then using some of the money for personal expenses and payments to other investors. She later convinced another couple to invest around $2 million in a company that would purportedly use the money to purchase bad debt and make other investments, but instead Willy again siphoned some of the money for personal expenses and Ponzi-like payments, prosecutors said.
She allegedly conspired with Allen and Cox to provide investors with false information detailing the purported investments in legitimate business activities. "In truth, much of that money went to the benefit of Cox, Allen, and Willy," the Justice Department says.
Willy compounded her legal troubles when she was found to have forged investors' signatures and presented those documents to the federal agents who were investigating her.
Willy pleaded guilty to six counts of wire fraud, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. She also pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud conspiracy and one count of money laundering conspiracy, which each also has a maximum sentence of 20 years. She could get up to 10 years for the charge of engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from the scheme. The 10th charge, aggravated identity theft, carries a mandatory minimum of two years, which must be served in addition to any other prison sentence.
Write to advisor.editors@barrons.com
This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 24, 2026 15:24 ET (19:24 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.