SAN ANTONIO - A San Antonio woman pleaded guilty Thursday for her role in a Ponzi scheme, announced U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas, Justin R. Simmons.

According to court documents, Brooklynn Chandler Willy, 46, was the owner of a San Antonio based company named Queen B Advisors LLC, doing business as Texas Financial Advisory (TFA), and Chandler Capital Holdings. Among other services, TFA purported to provide asset management and financial planning services.

At Willy's recommendation, a married couple invested money into an investment company named Ferrum Capital in March 2018. Ferrum Capital was one of four investment companies allegedly run by co-defendants Joshua Allen and Michael Cox. In May of 2021, Willy again advised the victim couple to invest $500,000 with another Ferrum entity, using Chandler Capital Holdings as the agent to execute and deliver contracts. Rather than investing the funds as intended, Willy used the $500,000 for her own purposes, including personal credit card payments, payments to other investors, and payments to another business owned and controlled by Willy.

Willy continued her scheme with additional victims. As set forth in court documents, Willy convinced a separate married couple to invest approximately $2 million dollars in an associate's company by promising that the investment would be used for the purchase of bad debt and other legitimate investments. In truth, Willy used the money for her own benefit, such as payments to herself, payments to her associate, and payments to other investors. Willy also convinced two other investors to invest $75,000 and $600,000 respectively into what Willy claimed were legitimate business investments. In truth, Willy, again, used their investments for her own benefit. During the course of the federal investigation, Willy forged the signatures of various victims on documents and provided those documents to federal agents for the purpose of misleading those agents.

Court documents further indicate Willy conspired with Allen and Cox by giving false information to investors concerning their investment in entities owned and controlled by Allen and Cox. Working with Cox and Allen, Willy convinced numerous investors to invest into a Cox and Allen controlled entity by falsely stating those investments were investments into legitimate business activities. In truth, much of that money went to the benefit of Cox, Allen, and Willy.

Willy pleaded guilty to 10 counts of an information filed on Feb. 25. She faces up to 20 years in prison on each of the six wire fraud charges, on the one wire fraud conspiracy charge, and on the one money laundering conspiracy charge. She also faces up to 10 years for engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from the wire fraud scheme and a mandatory minimum of two years in prison for aggravated identity theft, which, by statute, would run consecutive to any other punishment. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. Allen and Cox are scheduled for a jury trial in August.

The FBI and IRS-CI are investigating the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Blackwell is prosecuting the case.

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