Brian Roberson, 42, of Fort Myers, Florida, stood before U.S. District Judge Cathy Seibel today and admitted to one count of securities fraud, capping a years-long deception that bled an investor of more than $250,000. The guilty plea, delivered in Manhattan federal court, exposes a calculated scheme rooted in false promises, misappropriated funds, and outright theft disguised as high-stakes finance.
According to documents filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, Roberson lured the investor in late 2010 with talk of a revolutionary high-frequency trading algorithm. He claimed to have insider access to favorable terms at a securities clearing firm, thanks to sizable holdings under his company, Savant Capital Management LLC. The pitch worked: in January 2011, the investor wired $250,000 to an account controlled by Roberson, trusting it would be deployed for algorithmic trading.
But Roberson lied. Of the $250,000 sent, only about $233,000 ever reached the clearing firm. The rest vanished—siphoned off in cash withdrawals and transferred to Roberson’s personal accounts. By April 2011, he had stopped paying the developer building the trading algorithm. When the investor demanded his money back, Roberson returned just $50,000 and falsely claimed the rest was still intact.
In reality, Roberson had already burned through the remaining funds, using them to cover massive trading losses and fees in his own accounts. He funneled portions to bank accounts tied to himself and his family, continuing the theft through October 2011. Investigators uncovered that some of the stolen money was used to buy expensive jewelry—financed on the backs of broken trust and federal law.
The crime carries a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison—a penalty set by Congress, though actual sentencing will be determined by Judge Seibel. Roberson is scheduled to return to court on August 26, 2019, at 10:00 a.m., where he will face the consequences of his admitted fraud. No plea deal details were disclosed in open court.
Geoffrey S. Berman, then-U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, commended the FBI’s New York Field Division, led by Assistant Director-in-Charge William F. Sweeney Jr., for their relentless investigation. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys James McMahon and Jeffrey Coffman of the White Plains Division, who called the fraud a textbook case of financial betrayal masked by technical jargon and false credibility.
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Key Facts
- State: New York
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: Official Source ↗
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