A Ponzi schemer known as Dr. Cash has been sentenced to prison in the U.S. for investment adviser fraud.
A U.S. district court judge sentenced Terrence Chalk — who used the aliases Terrence Cash and Dr. Cash to pitch a purported investment fund — to three years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. It also ordered him to pay restitution, which will be determined later. Chalk pleaded guilty in May 2024.
According to court filings, in 2017, Chalk, who touted himself as a “wealth coach” in seminars promising to help investors with their finances, began marketing an investment fund that promised high returns and regular payouts. The scheme targeted elderly investors in seminars typically held at Black churches, U.S. authorities alleged.
While investors initially received the promised returns, by the end of 2019 many victims had stopped receiving payments. None of the US$4.8 million taken from investors was invested. Instead, most of the money was used to make payments to early investors, diverted to other entities controlled by Chalk, and spent on personal expenses, authorities charged.
In a parallel civil proceeding filed in 2020, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged Chalk and his companies, Greenlight Investment Partners Inc. and related firms, with breaching securities rules by recommending and selling unregistered securities in the fund from 2017 through 2020.
In its complaint, the SEC alleged Chalk, who was previously convicted of identity theft and bank fraud, used the alias “Dr. Cash” to “conceal his identity and criminal past from investors and held himself out as a successful investment adviser.”