When FINRA barred former NYLife Securities broker Kari Marlin Bracy aka Kari Marlin Farwell after she agreed to pay $80,000 to settle charges that she misrepresented an investment in Future Income Payments, LLC (FIP, headquartered in Irvine, CA) as conservative and safe, its discipline came nearly a year after the US Department of Justice formally declared the FIP investment to be a Ponzi scheme responsible for approximately $300 million in fraud-related damages.
In March 2019, the Department of Justice first indicted Future Income Payments (FIP) and owner Scott A. Kohn of Newport, California, alleging that FIP operated a Ponzi scheme targeting pension holders, such as US military veterans, seeking income.
FIP purportedly hooked investors by promising rates of return between 6.5% and 8%, and according to the complaint in her BrokerCheck file (CRD #5656186) and AWC #2018059595101, so did Bracy, by misrepresenting FIP as a "conservative and safe" investment with a 7.5% annual return.
According to the US Attorney's Office, the FIP Ponzi scheme "preyed upon innocent investors to the tune of roughly $300 million" and specifically sought to defraud pensioners facing financial difficulty who sought pension-advance payments.
A lawsuit filed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau against FIP of Irvine and Kohn of Newport in 2018 named additional defendants: BuySellAnnuity Inc.; Cash Flow Investment Partners LLC; Pension Advance LLC; Cash Flow Investment Partners East, LLC; Cash Flow Investment Partners MidEast LLC; Lumpsum Pension Advance Atlantic LLC; Lumpsum Pension Advance Southeast LLC; Lumpsum Settlement West LLC; PAS California, LLC; PAS Great Lakes, LLC; PAS Northeast LLC; PAS Southwest LLC; Pension Advance Carolinas LLC; Pension Advance Midwest LLC; and Pension Loans South LLC.
If you have invested with Kari Bracy or with any broker or financial adviser in Future Income Payments, LLC (FIP) or with any of the related entities named in the CFPB's 2018 lawsuit against FIP and have suffered losses due to the associated misrepresentation guaranteeing unrealistic rates of return on fake or faulty pension-advance plans, please call an experienced FINRA arbitration attorney at The Law Offices of Jonathan W. Evans & Associates at (800) 699-1881 for an investigation and consultation.