Brooklynn Chandler Willy, image from the “about” page of her website
More criminal charges were filed last week against a financial advisor and radio host in San Antonio who had ties to a Lubbock company at the heart of a $59 million personal bankruptcy case.
Originally, Brooklyn Chandler Willy was charged with obstructing an FBI investigation into investor fraud in both Lubbock and San Antonio, which LubbockLights.com covered in December. A new indictment accused Willy of wire fraud, securities fraud and more.
The new indictment revealed details about six victims who are not listed by name. Two of them were told their money was headed to a company in Lubbock but, according to the indictment, Willy kept the money for herself.
Dwain Strait of Lubbock is among those who filed legal action against Willy along with Lubbock-based Ferrum Capital and two of its company officers – Mike Cox and Josh Allen. Strait did not deal with Willy but with Cox, which we’ll explain further below.
“I’m gonna be 70 years old … My wife is 65, and basically we’re at the age where we’re fixing to retire,” Strait told LubbockLights.com.
But the Straits lost their retirement money, and he recently went back to work delivering tires.
“It’s just another grunt job,” Strait said.
A judge previously ordered Willy to stay locked up. She is not allowed post bond to be released from custody while her case is pending, even if she has the money.
Prosecutors requested she not go free because, as they wrote, there was “a serious risk that the Defendant will obstruct or attempt to obstruct justice” and for “the safety of any other person or the community.”
She’s scheduled to go back to court in San Antonio on Tuesday for another hearing on the matter.
Background leading up to her arrest
Before she was indicted and arrested, Willy was sued several times along with a Lubbock-based company called Ferrum Capital. Willy was an affiliate of Ferrum, according to these lawsuits. The company has since been placed under court-ordered receivership.
Ferrum’s investors are the bulk of the debts listed by Mike Cox who filed for bankruptcy last year in Lubbock. Nearly 400 people or businesses stand to lose money in the case.
LubbockLights.com reached out to attorneys for Cox and Allen many times since December – most recently last week. They have not responded.
Lawsuits said Ferrum would solicit loans – mostly from people in the greater Lubbock area. Bankruptcy records said they ranged from $10,000 up to $2.5 million. Ferrum then loaned the money to Collins Asset Group which claimed it purchased distressed debt, which was unlikely to be recovered. If the debt could be collected, people were told, it would make money.
Collins had been sued before and was forced to settle a class action lawsuit in Atlanta, which LubbockLights.com covered in this article.
Strait lost it all
“We met with Mike Cox back in November or December of 2017. … We attended a meeting with about 20 others. It was a talk about Social Security,” Strait said.
“He said he had an investment that was guaranteed to be risk free – said if you’re tired of the ups and downs of the stock market this would be an interest paying note. He didn’t go in a whole lot of detail, but he said it was just risk free – never have to worry about it,” Strait said.
Strait was tired of the ups and downs of the stock market. Something steady sounded good and Cox offered him 8 percent interest with quarterly payments.
“The Collins group was supposed to be fantastic. They just touted them as been doing this for decades,” Strait said.
The bankruptcy petition said Cox owed Strait $210,000 for a loan to Ferrum. For his wife Grace Strait, the number was $304,000.
At first, Strait did receive quarterly interest payments.
“First sign of trouble was when I did not receive my interest payment, which was October 2023,” Strait said.
“Called Mike Cox back, and I said, ‘Hey I got a problem. I don’t know what’s going on,’” Strait said. Cox told him to wait a few days.
But the payment never came in.
“So, I called him up and I said, ‘It’s time for a face to face. I got to know what’s going on because I just retired a year ago and my wife is thinking about retiring. And this can’t happen,’” Strait said.
“He said, ‘I don’t know what happened here.’ He said, ‘They’ve always been like clockwork. They never missed paying us the money that’s owed for interest or anything,’” Strait said.
Strait had built up some retirement money by owning a restaurant, owning a moving company and working as a real estate broker.
“We invested pretty much all of our savings with him,” Strait said.
“I went back to work, and my wife is still working, so she’s putting off her retirement. We’re kind of still in limbo since this just happened,” Strait said.
In a recent Zoom call with attorneys, Strait learned he’s realistically looking at getting back 5 cents on the dollar.
Looking back, Strait said there were red flags he didn’t catch.
“They portrayed themselves in their office with professionalism and as Christians. … He even had the Bible open and displayed up on his desk,” Strait said.
“I made the big, big mistake of trusting him,” Strait said.
His advice is to go with a big-name company that’s been around for a while. And he said to research all investments that you have.
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