The victims’ stories of losing their retirement savings in a $10 million investment fraud scheme were heartbreaking: some lost their homes, some had to declare bankruptcy, and many suffered—and continue to suffer—from physical and emotional ailments upon learning they had virtually nothing left to retire with.
The fraudsters responsible for this fallout—who lined their own pockets with the hard-earned money of working people trying to save for their golden years—were Merrill Robertson and Sherman Carl Vaughn, Jr., two Virginia businessmen. After a joint federal law enforcement investigation into the pair’s Ponzi-like scheme, the two were ultimately brought to justice for their crimes against more than 60 victims in multiple states. In light of Robertson’s earlier conviction at trial and Vaughn’s previous guilty plea, Robertson was recently sentenced to 40 years in prison, and Vaughn—who testified at Robertson’s trial—received 12 years. The men were also ordered to pay nearly $9 million in restitution to their victims.
Robertson is a former University of Virginia football star who had worked for a large broker-dealer and was licensed as a broker. Vaughn had a business degree from another Virginia college but has never been licensed as a broker. Together, in 2010, the pair formed Cavalier Union Investments, LLC, which claimed to be a “leading private investment firm” catering to IRA account holders and offering investment opportunities—with fixed annual returns of 10 to 20 percent—in restaurants, real estate, and alternative energy. Cavalier purportedly had a variety of divisions, investment funds, and investment advisers.
But in reality, Cavalier did not have any divisions, investment funds, or investment advisers—it was just Robertson and Vaughn. And what a pair they were—Robertson no longer had his broker’s license, and Vaughn had filed for personal bankruptcy four times, including the two times he did it while working at Cavalier. Shortly after the company was formed, Cavalier became insolvent and relied on cash from newer investors to stay afloat and pay back older investors who asked for their money back—the perfect Ponzi scheme, at least for a while.
