ATLANTA (AP) - A lawyer for a former state lawmaker and Georgia Board of Regents member says his client has been ordered to pay nearly $10.8 million after being accused of running what authorities called a Ponzi scheme.
Dean Alford of Conyers resolved the matter through a negotiated settlement, his lawyer, Walter Jospin, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Thrash signed the order last week.
U.S. Securities and Exchange officials said that Alford owned an energy firm and sold promissory notes to investors - many of them in the Columbus, Georgia, area - and guaranteed high annual rates of return.
But government officials said that in reality, the company was struggling and Alford could not repay his investors. They say he used the money to make interest payments to earlier investors and on other expenses, such as building a multimillion-dollar home.
Investors say they were defrauded out of $23 million.
Alford resigned from the Board of Regents in October 2019 shortly after the criminal charges emerged. He previously served 10 years as a state representative.
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