TAMPA — A May 22, 2024 Instagram post on Todd Burkhalter's Instagram page celebrated his company, Drive Planning, LLC, advertising at Tropicana Field.
He wrote "Drive Planning had some great publicity last night"
He also wrote "Go Rays."
According to court documents, that company is now at the center of a $300 million real estate Ponzi scheme.
"There's a huge emotion out there that's very hard to control and it's called greed," said USF associate professor Kerry Myers.
Myers teaches business law and said Drive Planning's promise of a 10% return for investors every 90 days should have been a red flag.
"As the old saying goes, if it's too good to be true, it probably is," Myers said.
A lawsuit filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission alleges Burkhalter, who is from St. Petersburg, stole investors' money to fund a lavish lifestyle, including buying a $3.1 million yacht.
Drive Planning paid the Rays $400,000 to market the company.
But as part of a court settlement, the Rays returned half of it.
The motion described as "100% of the amount [the Rays] received from Drive Planning for which no marketing services were provided."
"Smart decision on their part. Good business decision. Good legal decision," Myers said.
Attorney Janae Thomas said the Rays may have taken a risk by associating with Drive Planning because of the team's financial situation.
"It sounds like somebody just trusted the wrong person and needed the money and took a risk that they may not have otherwise taken," said Thomas.
2,000 investors gave money to Drive Planning, including an Indiana couple that said they lost $250,000.
The court is working to recover as much of the money as possible to return to the investors.
"A lot of times that's people's retirement and they've worked their whole life to save that much money," said Thomas.
A Rays official told me they have no comment on the case.
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