12/14/2024
A federal judge has ordered San Antonio investment adviser and financial radio show host Brooklynn Chandler Willy to remain locked up while she’s under indictment for obstruction of justice.
During a Friday court hearing, U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth “Betsy” Chestney said “there was too significant a risk” to release Willy on bond as her lawyer had requested.
Chestney’s ruling drew rousing applause from some of Willy’s clients who have been trying to get back money they’ve invested with her.
Willy, jailed since Tuesday when FBI and IRS agents arrested her at her Stone Oak office following a three-count indictment by a federal grand jury last week, appeared glum after Chestney granted prosecutors’ motion for the investment manager to remain detained. Willy, a 45-year-old Boerne resident, was in shackles and dressed in navy blue prison garb with a white long-sleeve shirt underneath.
Roy Barrera Jr., a San Antonio attorney who represents Willy, expressed disappointment over the judge’s decision.
“Very disappointed for my client,” Barrera said after the hearing. “Very disappointed for my client’s family. We were not expecting this result. We hope to rectify it through our continued negotiations with the government.”
Willy’s husband, parents and two sisters attended the hearing.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Blackwell had argued for Willy’s detainment because she posed “a danger to the community.”
“This defendant, we know, is a risk to obstruct … a very serious ongoing investigation,” Blackwell told the judge. Willy created a document and falsified clients’ signatures “to try to stymie an investigation into fraud of those very clients,” he said.
“We know that she is a danger to obstruct justice because she has done it,” Blackwell added. “She did it deliberately, she did it multiple times and with multiple victims.”
Chestney said she’s open to revisiting her detention decision after the government takes steps to secure “the evidence, the witnesses, the documents.” She encouraged the lawyers to discuss what a reasonable timeframe for that might be.
Willy was indicted on obstruction and attempt to obstruct a criminal investigation by allegedly producing false documents in response to a federal grand jury subpoena. She’s also been charged with making a false statement and aggravated identity theft.
She owns Queen B Advisors LLC, which does business as Texas Financial Advisory, an asset management and financial planning firm. In August, Texas Financial Advisory reported managing more than $117 million in assets on behalf of about 620 clients.
She has hosted a radio program on Saturday evenings and Sunday mornings on WOAI-AM and Sunday afternoons on KTSA-AM and KTSA-FM. WOAI, however, removed the show from its online program schedule following Willy’s arrest. WOAI and KTSA officials didn’t respond to an email inquiring if they will continue to air her show. Neither news station has anything about her arrest on their websites.
Meanwhile, Willy is a defendant in at least three lawsuits — including one involving 71 plaintiffs who allege she committed fraud and violated state securities laws by selling unregistered securities. She has disputed the allegations.
In November 2023, the FBI and IRS launched a criminal investigation into an investor fraud scheme allegedly involving Willy and a Lubbock investment company, identified in the indictment as “Company 1.”
During the hearing, Rebecca Jones, an IRS special agent in criminal investigation, testified the company is Lubbock-based Ferrum Capital LLC. The FBI and IRS’ investigation involves a “much larger investment fraud scheme” with at least 400 victims, she said.
“Losses are in the tens of millions,” Jones said.
Clients were sold Ferrum investment products that included distressed debt, life settlements and European bonds, she said. Willy put about 200 of her clients into those products, Jones added.
The investigation has two prongs. The first involves “fraud in the inducement of the investment,” such as lies told to clients about the risk and security of the products, Jones said. The second prong involves “money that was just flat-out stolen from victims.” That included money that went to other investors, making it a Ponzi scheme, she said.
San Antonio couple
Jones testified about an elderly San Antonio couple who agreed to invest $500,000 with Ferrum using Willy’s Chandler Capital Holdings as the agent to execute and deliver the contract. The two, who made the investment in 2021, are identified in the indictment as “Victim 1” and “Victim 2.”
Willy deposited the couple’s check with Chandler Capital but never sent any of the money to Ferrum, Jones said.
Willy used the money to pay her American Express bills, to pay herself, to pay one of her other businesses and to pay back other clients, Jones said.
On June 11, the couple agreed to have a “monitored” phone call with Willy. Blackwell played the entire 18-minute call for the judge.
“Just to put you on the spot, you didn’t take any of our money?” the husband is heard saying to Willy.
“No, I did not,” she answered.
“Well, I’m just in a tough spot here because this represents 17 years of savings,” he said.
The ‘loan’
Willy produced for investigators a revolving line of credit agreement and promissory note reflecting that the couple’s company had loaned $500,000 to Willy, Jones said. That would explain Willy’s personal use of the money, the agent added.
However, the couple told investigators they had never seen the document or signed it. Nevertheless, it appeared to have their signatures, Jones said. The couple also said they never would have agreed to such a loan, she added.
Jones testified the couple’s original investment agreement was executed in May 2021, but the creation date of the credit agreement and promissory note in electronic form was Sept. 18, 2024 — “the due date of the subpoena.”
The couple’s signatures on the agreement and note appeared identical to their signatures on a 2018 document, Jones said. They were sent to an FBI lab for analysis.
The lab determined they were “duplicate signatures,” Jones said. “They were completely identical.”
Jones later said, “Mrs. Willy has a lot of power over her clients’ life savings. We’re concerned that Mrs. Willy may use this power to influence, intimidate or lie to clients to get them to not cooperate with our investigation.”
If convicted, she could face up to 20 years in prison on the obstruction charge. Making a false statement carries a prison sentence of up to five years, while identity theft is a minimum of two years in prison — to run consecutively with any other sentence. Each charge also carries a maximum penalty of $250,000.
Professor Elam 
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