A former financial advisor has been indicted in connection with a multi-million-dollar fraud scheme that targeted investors across the U.S., according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia.

Craig Murfee Allen, 53, of Atlanta, was indicted by a federal grand jury, according to the release, which was issued by the Department of Justice on Thursday. The release did not specify the fraud counts, but the website for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution noted that Allen was indicted on 26 counts of wire fraud, money laundering and securities fraud in the federal trial court in Atlanta, where he pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The SEC also filed a parallel civil complaint on Thursday against Allen that is tied to the alleged fraud.

Prosecutors said that between January 2019 and January 2023, Allen, the sole shareholder and executive officer of C.M. Allen Capital Management Inc., caused dozens of investors across the country to lose more than $7 million in an investment scheme involving the Cheetah Fund, a hedge fund he advised and controlled.

According to the SEC complaint, Allen repeatedly lied to the investors about the fund’s performance, sending them bogus short summaries of the fund’s strategy and performance and the terms for investing in it. He also provided purported monthly and annual returns for past years. For example, he falsely represented that the Cheetah Fund had an annual performance of 73.24% in 2018, 48.82% in 2019 and 69.76% in 2020, the SEC said.

“Upon information and belief, except for two small trades in 2018, the Cheetah Fund itself did not make any other trades in those years. Even if C.M. Allen’s performance is included as the Cheetah Fund’s performance, the boasts about performance were still fraudulent,” the SEC said.

Investors were also led to believe that Allen employed an accounting firm that audited the Cheetah Fund and prepared its Schedule K-1 tax forms, and that the fund and/or the company had a chief operating officer, the complaint said. Allen further lured prospective investors with a false tale, according to the agency, that “the fund’s existing investors included a specific former NFL quarterback or the quarterback’s family (Allen’s father-in-law)" during the period in question, January 2019 to January 2023.

The complaint noted that the Cheetah Fund, which traded from 2021 to 2023 and C.M. Allen, which traded from 2019 to 2021, “incurred net realized trading losses every year during the relevant period, including approximate realized losses exceeding $1.86 million in each of 2021 and 2022.”

The complaint also pointed out that the Cheetah Fund and C.M. Allen also incurred realized trading losses in 36 of the 49 months during the relevant period from January 2019 to January 2023. As a result, both entities incurred more than $4.59 million in realized trading losses during that period.

Despite the heavy trading losses, the SEC said Allen pocketed $2.64 million from Cheetah Fund investors by transferring funds to his personal accounts. That amount the SEC said is “subject to any offset for the minimal amount, if any, of compensation he earned.”

Allen used the money to repay previous investors and to fund his personal and family expenses—such as credit card payments, private school tuition, travel, housing expenses and children’s summer camps, the complaint said.

In January 2023, Allen informed investors that he was entering into an alcohol rehabilitation program for 90 days and that he was going to be “totally out of pocket,” the complaint noted. But the complaint said, “On information and belief, Allen instead initially fled the country.”

A few days later, the SEC said, he exchanged text messages with an investor, and in a subsequent message admitted that the Cheetah Fund had continual losses. “I reported gains when we had losses ... I had to report gains or my family would have starved to death."

In another text message a couple days later, the complaint noted, he told the investor that “there is no money left,” and asked, “Why would I be talking about checking out with a gun if there were money left[?]” the complaint noted.

Allen began working in the industry in 2011 with Chimera Securities LLC, according to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s BrokerCheck site. He stayed there for 15 months before moving to T3 Trading Group LLC, where he spent seven months before joining Avatar Securities LLC, where he worked 10 months. He has not been registered with Finra since October 2016.

He could not be reached for comment.