East Cobb Investment Advisor Accused Of Running Ponzi Scheme: SEC

EAST COBB, GA — A Marietta investment advisor with East Cobb connections has been accused by the Securities and Exchange Commission of operating a $110 million Ponzi scheme, according to a suit filed last week in Atlanta.

The SEC alleges that John J. Woods, 56, and the companies he controls raised more than $110 million from more than 400 investors, many of them “elderly retirees,” the agency said in a statement Wednesday.

Woods promised a safe, fixed return for the investments, but instead used new investor money to pay earlier investors. According to the SEC, Woods and his companies have less than $16 million in liquid assets.

On Tuesday, a federal judge ordered some of those assets frozen, including a piece of the Chattanooga Lookouts minor-league baseball team. The Chattanoogan newspaper reports that Wood holds a minority stake in the team.

Woods was a member of the original East Cobb Cityhood committee, reports the East Cobb News. He’s not listed as a member of the current group. Woods also chaired the football booster club for Walton High School, where three of his sons played football. One of them currently plays for the University of Georgia Bulldogs.

Read the stories from East Cobb News and The Chattanoogan.

Read the SEC complaint.