Former Indianapolis-area insurance broker agrees to guilty plea in $4M Ponzi case

Former insurance broker Brian Simms of Lebanon, who was accused of misappropriating nearly $4 million in client funds in a “Ponzi-like” scheme, has agreed to plead guilty to one count of wire fraud.

Simms, who operated Brendanwood Financial Brokerage LLC in Carmel, was charged with six counts of wire fraud in September 2022. Simms had been set to go to trial on the charges next month, but agreed last week to plead guilty rather than stand trial.

As part of his plea deal, which was filed in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Indiana, prosecutors agreed to dismiss five of those six charges.

In addition, Simms agreed to pay his victims $2.62 million in restitution.

According to the plea agreement, between 2013 and 2021, Simms convinced his victims to liquidate their traditional investments such as 401(k) accounts, annuities and life insurance policies, and reinvest that money with Brendanwood.

Simms told the victims that he would invest their money, but instead he either spent it on himself  for used it to make “Ponzi-like payments” to other victims, investigators said.

The plea agreement references 20 victims who invested sums ranging from $15,000 to $1.4 million each. The victims are identified by their initials only. Most are Indiana residents.

Simms’ attorney, Samuel Ansell of Indiana Community Federal Defenders, declined to comment on the case when contacted by IBJ.

A sentencing date for Simms has not yet been set. The charge to which he pleaded guilty carries a maximum sentence of up to 20 years in prison followed by three years of supervised release, plus a $250,000 fine.

The plea agreement also says that Simms was a licensed insurance broker between 2012 and 2020, but that neither he nor Brendanwood had the proper credentials to offer financial advising services or sell securities.