PHOENIX — A Phoenix insurance producer was ordered to pay $1,411,950 in restitution for scamming several real estate investors via a “Ponzi scheme,” according to the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC).
Gregory Patrick Talbot was caught offering “alternative” investment options to potential investors which he claimed were “sound and proven,” according to initial court documents filed in December 2022. A key option discovered by the ACC was connected to a Ponzi scheme-ridden company named Woodbridge.
The ACC said Talbot had offered these false investments since at least July 2016. These investments were controlled by Florida-based company, EquiAlt, LLC., and potential investors were advised EquiAlt was “raising capital to purchase, improve, lease and dispose of distressed real property,” according to a press release.
Through its case investigation, the ACC discovered EquiAlt was also operating a Ponzi scheme, and nationwide at that.
Talbot sold a minimum of 20 EquiAlt debentures, or unsecured loan certificates, seven of which went to Arizona investors. The Arizona-targeted debentures were worth at least $500,000. EquiAlt had allegedly promised “a fixed rate of return at 8-10%” with the option of reinvest, according to court documents.
From July 2016 to February 2020, Talbot received $260,941.89 in commission for these sales.
At the end of Talbot’s scheme in February 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) confirmed suspicions of EquiAlt’s Ponzi scheming by filing a complaint that alleged the company had raised over $170 million by fooling more than 1,100 investors.
Talbot was not authorized to sell such “securities” in Arizona, the ACC said. He “misrepresented” his security-selling abilities to at least one investor through an improperly labeled email signature.
In addition to his restitution payment, the ACC demanded Talbot pay $50,000 in administration penalties.
On the same day as this case order was released, the ACC ordered a Scottsdale stockbroker to repay a cognitive impaired client for investment fraud.