East Cobb investment advisor pleads guilty to Ponzi scheme

An East Cobb investment advisor whom federal authorities say defrauded clients out of more than $25 million has pleaded guilty. East Cobb investment adviser pleads guilty

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia in Atlanta, John Woods, 58, pleaded guilty to a single charge of wire fraud and he awaits sentencing.

Woods has been active high school sports and civic affairs in East Cobb.

In 2021, Woods was accused by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission of operating a Ponzi scheme through his former company, Southport Capital Risk Management.

U.S. Attorney Ryan Buchanan said in a release that Woods solicited investors to invest in a fund called Horizon Private Equity, promising rates of return of six to seven percent.

He told investors their funds would be invested in government bonds, stocks and small real estate projects, according to the release, which said Woods assured investors would be safe because Horizon had a diverse portfolio.

But the U.S. Attorney’s Office said the investments were used to repay other investors, saying that Woods misled clients “by failing to disclose that the Horizon investments had not generated a positive percentage of return sufficient to cover the interest.”

More than $110 million was invested in the Horizon fund, from 400 investors in more than 20 states, federal prosecutors said.

“Losses are still being calculated, but investors have lost more than $25 million because of Woods’s scheme to defraud,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

“Investors should respond with caution to financial offers that sound too good to be true and are cloaked in the promise of low risk and high rates of return,” Buchanan said in the release.

Woods was formerly on the executive board of the Walton Touchdown Club and was a member of the original East Cobb Cityhood committee in 2019.

He was a minority owner of the Chattanooga Lookouts baseball team, in his Tennessee hometown, and also has been the head of the Friends of Chastain Park Foundation in Atlanta.

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