SEC alleges barred planner steered clients into tax-lien fraud

The SEC barred Christopher Novinger in 2016. It alleges he kept raising money from his own clients anyway - for tax liens never bought.

On August 31, the Securities and Exchange Commission sued Novinger, a retirement planner from Burleson, Texas, and David Gilchrist, a Grand Prairie attorney, in federal court in Dallas. The agency says the two raised money for tax-lien investments that were never made.

For advisors, Novinger is the name to watch. The complaint says the SEC barred him in 2016 from associating with any broker, dealer or investment adviser, and that he agreed then to pay $349,478. According to the filing, he kept selling anyway - and pulled 16 of his own retirement-planning clients into the deal.

The pitch was simple, the SEC says. From March 2021 through at least October 2025, Gilchrist raised more than $1.85 million from at least 22 investors in four states across four separate offerings. The first promised 12.5% every 90 days for fronting cash to people waiting on class-action payouts. The others promised about 20% a year from tax liens on Texas properties behind on their taxes, with the property itself as the backstop if an owner did not pay.

None of it happened, according to the complaint. The filing alleges Gilchrist never bought a lien and never advanced a settlement, and that he forged documents, fabricated an account statement, spent investor money on himself, and made what the SEC calls "Ponzi-like payments" to earlier investors.

Novinger’s part runs through the third and fourth offerings. The third was the largest, at $1,298,076 from 18 investors. The complaint says he found the investors, handled the paperwork and passed their money to Gilchrist. It alleges he told at least two clients he had invested his own money, and that he never did.

The filing also says Novinger had doubts. For months, according to the complaint, he asked Gilchrist for proof the liens were real and got nothing. In a November 2023 voicemail quoted in the filing, he said, "We’re now at six months that [sic] we’ve been doing tax liens, and I don’t think to date that David [Gilchrist] has given us a single one of the tax liens." He kept selling, the SEC says, once texting Gilchrist, "I got tons more coming!"

The complaint adds one more detail: it says Novinger runs an annual bicycle ride called "Pedaling Against Ponzis" for victims of a separate Ponzi scheme, and has discussed Ponzi schemes on his podcast.

Investors are still short. As of May 13, 2026, third-offering investors had recovered about $637,881 of the $1,298,076 they put in, the complaint says. In the first offering, one investor got back $40,000 of a $220,000 investment.

The SEC also named Novinger’s wife as a relief defendant - a person who is not accused of wrongdoing but is alleged to have received money tied to the case. The agency says $14,131 in commissions meant for Novinger went to her account, and that she had no legitimate claim to it.

The agency charged both men with fraud under federal securities law. It also charged Novinger with acting as an unregistered broker and with breaking the terms of his 2016 bar.

The allegations have not been tested, and no court has ruled. The complaint reflects the SEC’s allegations.