NC Ponzi schemer sentenced. Bought beach house, boat and ‘fancy’ cars, feds say
A North Carolina Ponzi schemer was sentenced to 24 years in prison Friday for defrauding 117 investors of at least $24 million, federal prosecutors said.
William Lamar Rhew III, 39, claimed he would make the investors rich, but instead bought “fancy cars, a beach house and even a boat” with their money, James Barnacle Jr., FBI Charlotte special agent in charge, said in a news release by U.S. Attorney Clifton Barrett’s office.
Rhew pleaded guilty in May to wire fraud, money laundering, securities fraud, tax evasion and failure to file tax return in connection with scheme.
Rhew lives in the Guilford County town of Summerfield, where he ran the fraud from November 2017 to December 2023, according to documents in U.S. District Court in Winston-Salem.
He coaxed people to invest with his company, Chadley Capital LLC, saying the company would buy accounts receivable at a discount, sell them for a profit and “provide consistently high rates of return” on their investments, court records show.
He falsely claimed the company completed $300 million in transactions in 2023, had returns of at least 20% a year and nearly 74% total growth over two years, according to court documents.
The only truth, prosecutors said, was that Rhew funded his personal lifestyle with the money.
How Rhew pulled off his investment scheme
Rhew made payments with the victims’ money on his personal credit cards and to maintain the scheme through “interest” and “withdrawal” payments to some of the investors.
He also didn’t report $9 million in income to the IRS in tax years 2018 through 2022 and evaded over $3 million in taxes, prosecutors said.
He lied to his accountant and falsely reported his personal spending from Chadley Capital as business expenses, court records show. And he failed to file 1040 individual income tax returns from 2018 through 2022.
In a statement, Barrett said Rhew “devastated the personal finances of individual victims and defrauded the public at large.”
“The time Rhew will spend behind bars will never make up for the millions of dollars he stole from more than a hundred people,” Barnacle said. “Fraud of this magnitude can have a lasting impact not only financially, but emotionally for victims.”
This story was originally published August 23, 2025 at 11:25 AM with the headline "NC Ponzi schemer sentenced. Bought beach house, boat and ‘fancy’ cars, feds say."