The Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday charged San Antonio-based investment advisors Robert J. Mueller and deeproot Funds LLC, along with Policy Services Inc., with defrauding nearly 300 investors out of $58 million.
According to the SEC order, Mueller and deeproot persuaded investors, many of whom were retirees, to cash out annuities and individual retirement accounts they held with other investment companies and invest in two pooled investment funds they advise.
Mueller and deeproot told investors the funds — the deeproot 575 Fund, LLC and the deeproot Growth Runs Deep Fund, LLC — would invest in life insurance policies and deeproot-related businesses to provide relatively safe returns to investors.
Mueller created the funds in 2014.
From at least September 2015 to at least February 2021, Mueller and deeproot defrauded two investment funds they advise and nearly 300 people who invested roughly $58 million in the funds, according to the SEC.
The regulator says Mueller paid himself roughly $1.6 million from 2016 through 2020 using investors' funds.
"Mueller also used more than $1.5 million of the Funds' assets to pay hundreds of personal expenses, including his daughter's private school tuition, vacations with his family, his second wedding, his second divorce, his third wedding, jewelry for both his second and third wives (including engagement rings and wedding bands for both wives), other lifestyle spending for and by his family, and to buy a condominium in Kauai, Hawaii," the SEC said in its statement.
