Drive Planning Receivership: $84.8 Million Cash, $65 Million First Payout Planned, as of September 30, 2026

What this page is, and the rule it follows

Everything the SEC says about Drive Planning is an allegation unless a court has entered a judgment. The criminal case is different: the founder and CEO pleaded guilty to wire fraud and was sentenced, and the U.S. Attorney's Office describes the scheme in those terms. We name companies, agencies, courts and case numbers, and the one defendant whose name people search, once. Investors and victims are never named.

The primary documents are court papers: the SEC's litigation releases LR-26076 and LR-26456, the U.S. Attorney's releases of January 21 and August 14, 2026, and the receiver's own filings, which he posts on driveplanningreceivership.com (4th, 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th status reports, the August 2025 claims-process order, the August 2026 amended distribution motion and the August 13, 2026 order approving the plan).

The case in dates

What was said about the size: the SEC's number and the receiver's number

The numbers changed as the records were rebuilt. If you saw “$300 million and 2,000 investors” in 2024 news, that was the SEC's first count.

The receiver's own two reports disagree on the investor count (about 2,800 in August, nearly 2,400 in October); we report both and do not resolve it. His loss figure is a net figure: he says it is deposits minus what investors got back, per investor, and he says 1,330 investors have not recovered anything from Drive Planning.

What the receiver holds, quarter by quarter

The ninth report also shows $616,725.60 of interest earned in the quarter and $896,764.78 of disbursements for receivership operations and professionals; it lists no disbursement to investors. Cash is not the same as a payout: it is before the receiver's fees are approved, before reserves, and before any money is set aside for the plan.

Properties sold in the July to September 2026 quarter

The report says the sales completed in the quarter generated $10,321,000, netting the estate $9,536,491.35, and the Montevallo sale $125,000, netting $111,832.63. The eight prices above add up to $10,196,000 (our arithmetic); $10,321,000 is that plus the Montevallo $125,000, so the report's gross figure appears to include the later sale while its net figure is stated separately. We use the reported net figures and flag the mismatch. Still for sale: an Indianapolis property listed at $1,999,999, a bar in St. Petersburg (a business broker was hired after the quarter), and several others.

Claims: how the money-in, money-out amount was set

The August 11, 2026 motion describes the process the court approved on August 25, 2025:

• Pre-filled claims. The receiver and Stretto sent every known investor and creditor an English and Spanish claim package by email, with the investor's contact details and a net loss already filled in.
• The formula. Net loss is total transfers in minus total transfers received. "The calculation of a claimant's Allowed Claim Amount did not include any interest, profit, or fees" promised but not paid. Accounts are combined per claimant, including individual retirement accounts, trusts and sole-owned LLC accounts.
• Accept or dispute. An investor who accepted the number signed the release; one who disputed uploaded documents. The receiver says more than 2,200 claim records, about $236 million of asserted losses, existed by the claims bar date (Sixth Status Report).
• Determinations and appeals. Final determinations went out by January 22, 2026 (77 claims needing more documents got until February 20, 2026). Seven claimants appealed; the court decided all seven on May 21, 2026. Two creditor claims (not investors) were also determined; the receiver allowed principal only, not interest or fees.

The claims bar date has passed, so a new investor claim is not something this record supports. Late claims were reviewed: the motion says seven late-filed claims were received. The FAQ on the receiver's site tells investors to keep wire receipts, canceled checks and IRA statements.

The distribution plan: what "Rising Tide" means for your cents per dollar

Rising Tide is a method that credits what an investor already got back before the receivership. In a Ponzi-type case, early investors often withdrew money; Rising Tide pays them less from the new fund until later investors have caught up to the same percentage.

On the court's August 13, 2026 order: it granted the amended motion, approved the hybrid Rising Tide method with the principal-reinvestment analysis, authorized the review of about 883 claims, and let the receiver file “a revised Reconciled Claims Report reflecting the Receiver's final claims determinations and proposed initial distribution amounts”. The report is still to come and the court must approve it. In the Ninth Status Report (October 30, 2026) the receiver says the review “remains ongoing”.

Two ratios, labelled as such (our arithmetic): a $65 million first payout against $229 million of losses is 28.4%; the $84,776,399.72 held on September 30, 2026 is 37.0% of $229 million. Neither is a recovery rate: the plan's amount will be set per investor, depends on what each already received, and fees and reserves come first.

About 40 investors wrote to the receiver objecting to Rising Tide, and the receiver says reinvested principal now gets individual review. If you withdrew and re-invested money, that review is the part of the plan that can change your number.

The second pot: lawsuits and settlements against agents and net winners

The court authorized suits against “investors to recover Net Gains” on August 7, 2025, after the receiver confers with the SEC. A “net winner” in this case means someone who took out more than they put in; their profits are, in the receiver's view, other investors' money. He asks net winners with hardship claims for sworn financial disclosures. The receiver's website also warns about an anonymous site urging investors to object to these suits. We do not know the details of any individual's case, and nothing in the public record says how many net winners there are.

The former agent who received the largest transfers turned over assets under a settlement: thirteen real properties in South Carolina and Alabama, a 30% interest in an apartment community, seven private placements, twenty-five life insurance policies and one IRA, according to the ninth report. Realizing those assets is still under way.

The criminal case

On August 14, 2026 the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia announced that U.S. District Judge Tiffany R. Johnson sentenced the founder and CEO to 20 years in federal prison and three years of supervised release, with restitution of $233,777,763.82. Earlier that week she sentenced the former chief operating officer to four years and three months (restitution $4,297,878.16) and the former chief administrative officer to two years (restitution $630,000). The release says the sentences are served without parole. It describes two products, a bridge-loan product called “Real Estate Acceleration Loan” (REAL) and the “Cash Out Real Estate Fund” (CORE Fund), and says more than 2,000 investors lost about $380 million. Restitution orders and the receiver's distributions are separate: the documents we read do not say how they will be coordinated.

On the SEC side, we found no filing reporting a final judgment against Drive Planning, LLC or its founder in the civil case; the receiver's reports do not mention one. The SEC's December 2025 action against two former executives is separate (LR-26456).

What is not known

• When the first payout will be mailed. The receiver's revised claims report is not yet filed, and the court must approve it.
• Each investor's exact percentage. The 26.2% and 35.41% figures are scenarios from earlier versions of the plan.
• How many net winners will be sued, and how much those suits will bring in.
• Whether the investor count is about 2,400 or about 2,800.
• How restitution under the criminal judgment will be coordinated with the receiver's distribution.
• A bar date for investors who missed the claims window: none is described in the documents we read.

What a reader can do with this

This page does not tell you what you will receive. What the record supports:

1. Find your number. The pre-filled claim form carried your net loss. If you accepted it, your allowed claim is that amount; if you never received the email, the receiver's contact is driveplanningreceiver@dvcattorneys.com.
2. Send the payment instructions. The receiver's site asks investors to complete a Payment Instructions Form telling him who the check is payable to and where it goes, with separate forms for IRA and non-IRA investments.
3. Beware of claim-buying and “acceleration” offers. The receiver's website carries a scam alert about someone claiming a financial company had acquired Drive Planning and could speed up recoveries. The receiver says that is untrue.
4. Read the next report. His 10th status report should follow the quarterly pattern (about January 30, 2027). The revised claims report and a distribution motion can be filed before then.
5. Mind the tax side. The receiver's FAQ tells investors who paid tax on interest they never received to ask a tax professional about the theft-loss deduction process, and tells IRA holders to speak with their IRA administrator about required minimum distributions. Our guide to self-directed IRA rules for real estate covers the custodian side, and Form 5498 box by box explains what the year-end value means.
6. Compare with other cases. Our pages on the Wells Real Estate Investment receivership (no claims process yet), the First Liberty Building & Loan sentencing and receivership and the SQN Capital Management receiver show how other receiverships are at different stages.

FAQ

All figures are from primary documents read on November 10, 2026: SEC litigation releases LR-26076 (August 14, 2024) and LR-26456 (December 30, 2025); U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of Georgia, press releases of January 21, 2026 and August 14, 2026; and the receiver's filings in No. 1:24-cv-03583 posted on driveplanningreceivership.com: the 4th (ECF 220), 6th (ECF 359), 7th (ECF 401), 8th (ECF 450) and 9th (ECF 481, October 30, 2026) status reports, the orders at ECF 234, 251, 350 and 455, the amended motion at ECF 451 and the June 8, 2026 Reconciled Claims Report. Quarter figures come from the receiver's fund accounting (SFAR) unless stated. This is analysis of public documents, not investment, legal or tax advice.