November 10, 2020 |SPF editors
New York|Orlando, Florida
“Dr. Terrance Cash” wasn’t a doctor. He wasn’t an investment advisor, accountant or broker, either. In fact, his name wasn’t “Cash” it was Chalk, and according to a recent federal indictment, he was a con man who had already served time in prison for fraud.
According to a criminal complaint filed last week by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Chalk was “a convicted felon who held himself out to be an investment adviser and the chairman and founder of a network of entities through which he marketed his advisory services and offered and sold securities in unregistered transactions.
Chalk offered his services as a “financial coach” to unsuspecting individuals in exchange for thousands of dollars in fees, falsely claiming he had retired after selling his former company for tens of millions of dollars.
In reality, Chalk had not retired—he had been incarcerated for several years after pleading guilty to criminal conduct in connection with his previous business venture. He called himself “Dr. Terrence Cash” to hide that he had a criminal history.
Operating out of Orlando, Florida, Chalk offered his “expertise” using the name “Greenlight.” “Greenlight” was simply a maze of companies that Chalk owned and controlled, including Greenlight Partners, Greenlight Advantage, Greenlight Solutions, and Greenlight Consulting (collectively, the “Greenlight Defendants”).
According to the indictment, Chalk operated from at least 2017 through 2020, collected fees as an investment advisor even though he was not a registered securities advisor or broker. In addition to the fees he collected from his victims, Chalk recommended Chalk sold securities in his “Chairman’s Fund” which really didn’t exist.
As is often the case, the indictment details that Chalk offered an “elite” fund of funds which provided a “special and exclusive investment opportunity [that] regularly delivers quarterly cash dividends that average between 12%-77% per year,” and “no less than 12% per year.”
5 Million Dollar “profit”
In fact, while “Dr. Cash” collected about 5 million dollars from his clients’ retirement funds, he invested only a small fraction of investors’ money in a handful of unprofitable business ventures.
Instead, of using investors’ money as promised, Chalk and the Greenlight Defendants withdrew almost $1 million of investors’ money in the form of cash and wire transfers, and used more than $700,000 on Chalk’s personal expenses, including on luxury car payments, credit card bills, jewelry purchases, and installation of a swimming pool at Chalk’s home.
He got rich while they got poor.
Chalk, age 58, of Passaic, New Jersey and Orlando, Florida, is an investment adviser and the founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of the Greenlight Defendants. Chalk does not hold any securities licenses and is not currently registered with the Commission in any capacity.
As of this date, a trial has not yet been scheduled.
