Dallas Man Sentenced for East Texas Investment Fraud Scheme

                SHERMAN, Texas – A 52-year-old Dallas man has been sentenced to federal prison for investment fraud in the Eastern District of Texas, announced U.S. Attorney Joseph D. Brown today.

Carlton Chadbourne Sayers, also known as Chad Sayers, pleaded guilty on Sep. 18, 2017, to wire fraud and bank fraud and was sentenced to 132 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Amos Mazzant on Feb. 27, 2018.

According to information presented in court, beginning in 2009, Sayers devised a real estate investment scheme in which individuals loaned or invested 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.  Sayers promised a significant rate of return (such as ten percent) to the investors, and frequently secured multiple investments based on a single piece of real property.  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, 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 was ordered to pay restitution to his victims in the amount of $2,102,617.27.               

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Gibson.