SEC freezes alleged $34M Ponzi scheme targeting federal employees

The Securities and Exchange Commission said the order issued Thursday by a federal judge in Miami also froze the assets of the estate of the late Kenneth Wayne McLeod, his consulting firm Federal Employee Benefits Group of Jacksonville, Fla., and an affiliated investment firm. The SEC alleged that McLeod and the firms defrauded an estimated 260 investors starting in 1988.

The SEC alleges that McLeod lured many of the active and retired federal employees through retirement planning seminars he put on at government agencies around the country. 

The SEC claims in their civil complaint, which was filed Thursday in federal court in Miami, that McLeod used their retirement savings to enrich himself and pay for lavish entertainment including yearly trips to the Super Bowl for himself and 40 friends. 

McLeod, 48, was found dead this past week in a Jacksonville public park with a gunshot wound that appeared to be self-inflicted.