Several top brass at DEA, as well as others have been robbed of their retirement and savings. Attached hereto, please read about the latest about a PONZI scam and one (possibly) individual who scammed law enforcement officials. Question: Who else was involved? Was or is anyone else involved with McLeod’s scheme?
Wayne McLeod, investment firm owner who shut down benefits fund, found dead. Investors are left with little more than an apologetic e-mail about closing a fund for federal employees.
Posted: June 23, 2010 – 11:25am
By Abel Harding
Investors in a Jacksonville-based advisory firm, whose clients included high-ranking federal law enforcement officials, received a hint of trouble last Friday in an e-mail from the company’s CEO.
Wayne McLeod told clients he was terminating the “FEBG Fund,” a private investment tool that had been marketed as an investment vehicle with spectacular returns.
Interest payments for the month of June had “been suspended” and “nothing further [would] be sent,” wrote McLeod, CEO of the Federal Employee Benefits Group. He went on to inform his clients that he was praying that they would forgive him at some point in the future.
Four days later, McLeod, 48, was found dead in a Mandarin park, apparently of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said.
Married and the father of six children, he owned homes in Amelia Island and Saint Johns, a 38-foot yacht and left behind many unanswered questions.
A spokesman with the Securities and Exchange Commission said there was no fund registered under the name “FEBG Fund,” as is usually required. The spokesman declined to say whether there was an ongoing investigation of McLeod.
It is unclear what happened to the fund’s assets or how many clients invested in the fund.
Investors in a Jacksonville-based advisory firm, whose clients included high-ranking federal law enforcement officials, received a hint of trouble last Friday in an e-mail from the company’s CEO.
Wayne McLeod told clients he was terminating the “FEBG Fund,” a private investment tool that had been marketed as an investment vehicle with spectacular returns.
Interest payments for the month of June had “been suspended” and “nothing further [would] be sent,” wrote McLeod, CEO of the Federal Employee Benefits Group. He went on to inform his clients that he was praying that they would forgive him at some point in the future.
Four days later, McLeod, 48, was found dead in a Mandarin park, apparently of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said.
Married and the father of six children, he owned homes in Amelia Island and Saint Johns, a 38-foot yacht and left behind many unanswered questions.
A spokesman with the Securities and Exchange Commission said there was no fund registered under the name “FEBG Fund,” as is usually required. The spokesman declined to say whether there was an ongoing investigation of McLeod.
It is unclear what happened to the fund’s assets or how many clients invested in the fund.
McLeod’s parents said by phone Wednesday they were looking for answers to what happened. Their son did not seem to be in any sort of financial or other trouble, the Jacksonville couple said.
“In other words, we’re just as much in the dark as you,” said his mother, Frances McLeod.
His father, Billy McLeod, said he played tennis with his son about a dozen times in the past two or three months. He said they would talk briefly at the end of the matches, but he did not notice any stress in his son’s life.
“He never discussed his business with us,” the elder McLeod said. “He appeared like he was making a good living.”
The firm’s high-rise offices on Jacksonville’s Southbank, which were adorned with numerous awards from federal law enforcement agencies, were closed late last week, and with little notice. On Wednesday, there were no signs of the firm’s employees, which reports say numbered as high as 28.
In a February 2009 letter bearing an ominous caution, McLeod informed investors that the assets of “FEBG Special Fund” were not reflected in the annual statement for their investment portfolio. He said he would be sending a report on that fund in a separate mailing. Then, McLeod urged his clients to use the utmost discretion and contact only him with queries about their funds.
“I’m the only one who has access to your file and account due to the confidentiality agreement for this fund,” McLeod wrote. “With all of the Ponzi Scams going on around the world I wanted to ensure [sic] you that this account is 100% secured by US Gov’t Securities and the principal is never touched until liquidated.”
Investors who requested withdrawals from McLeod in recent weeks say they were met with apparent agitation.
F&S Asset Management Group Inc., a company that catered to federal employees that McLeod headed, is registered with the SEC. The company had assets under management of $25 million, according to a 2005 filing with the agency, the latest available.
Both FEBG and F&S Asset Management Group Inc. advertised advisory services, which included financial planning and customized asset management services, as well as fee-based portfolio services.
Federal law enforcement officials who responded to a Times-Union request for information about McLeod painted a portrait of a man who worked hard to curry favor with Drug Enforcement Administration brass.
He donated heavily to the DEA’s Survivor’s Benefits Fund, displaying numerous recognitions from the group inside his 15th-floor riverfront offices in the Aetna building at 841 Prudential Drive. In return, officials invited him to in-service training conferences around the country, where he promoted both himself and his products.
For a small fee, he guided employees in allocating contributions to their Thrift Savings Plans, the federal equivalent of a 401(k). That initial advice, which was typically for the 5 percent contribution of an employee’s salary — matched dollar-for-dollar by the federal government — was McLeod’s “hook,” some investors said. He would then encourage them to invest additional money, often up to 8 percent, with his firm.
DEA officers aren’t the only ones who heard McLeod’s pitch. Employees of other federal agencies, including the FBI, said they had attended McLeod’s seminars.
Flora Beal, communications director for the Florida Office of Financial Regulation, said McLeod’s investors who need assistance with claims should contact the office’s Division of Securities by going online at www.flofr.com or calling (800) 848-3792 (800) 848-3792.
