Alvin Christopher Jones, a Tampa, Florida attorney licensed since 1998 and a former state prosecutor, has consented to a final judgment entered by a federal judge on April 27, 2026, resolving Securities and Exchange Commission charges that he aided and abetted one of the more brazen investment fraud schemes to reach federal court in recent years. Jones, 55, who graduated from Princeton University in 1991 and earned his law degree from the University of Florida in 1996, served as a “paymaster” for Roosevelt Tobias Bailey and his entity Borg Investment Bank and Capital Trust, allowing more than a million dollars in investor funds to flow through his professional trust account and be dissipated at Bailey’s direction. The SEC charged Jones in July 2024 alongside Bailey, who had raised approximately $1.6M from at least 26 investors through promises of extraordinary returns tied to gold, diamonds, and prime bank instruments, none of which ever materialized. The final judgment permanently bars Jones from violating federal securities laws and orders him to pay a total of $26,462.77 in disgorgement, interest, and civil penalties.
A Princeton Graduate and Former Prosecutor Who Built a Small Business Planning Firm, Then Opened His Trust Account to a Fraudster
Jones founded the Law Office of Alvin C. Jones, P.A. in Tampa in 2001, beginning with criminal defense before expanding into entertainment law, intellectual property, personal injury, and eventually business formation. After the 2008 financial crisis hit his practice, he pivoted to small business planning and counseling for self-employed clients, a niche he described on his firm’s website as a calling driven by the belief that “anything worth doing is worth doing right.” He also operated Florida Escrow and Trust PLLC out of a downtown Tampa office on North Ashley Drive. That escrow infrastructure became central to his role in the Bailey scheme. According to the SEC’s complaint filed in the Northern District of Georgia in July 2024, Jones allowed investor funds to pass through his attorney trust account and then disbursed them according to Bailey’s instructions between at least 2019 and 2022. The professional trust account is among the most protected instruments in legal practice, maintained under strict bar rules to safeguard client and third-party funds. Jones used it as a conduit for a scheme the SEC describes as fraudulent from the ground up.
Bailey Promised 16 Times the Investment in Gold and Bank Instruments That Did Not Exist
Roosevelt Tobias Bailey, 68, of Buford, Georgia, formed Borg Investment Bank and Capital Trust in Washington, D.C. in October 2018 and positioned it as a global asset monetization entity with access to standby letters of credit, gold transactions, and diamond deals. He told investors their money would be used to obtain bank instruments that Borg Bank would then “monetize” to generate returns of up to 16 times their original investment within 30 to 90 days. Neither program ever executed a single transaction. Bailey and Borg Bank allegedly raised more than $1.6M from at least 26 investors, but fraudulently used approximately $250,000 to make Ponzi payments to earlier investors and misappropriated at least $410,000 to pay for Bailey’s personal expenses including furniture, furs, and personal real estate. The SEC’s complaint further notes that Bailey was convicted of a felony copyright offense in 2001, a prior record that did not prevent him from presenting himself as the chairman, president, CEO, and sole managing trustee of a global investment bank.
Jones Received Investor Complaints Alleging Fraud and Continued Disbursing Funds Anyway
What separates Jones’s conduct from passive negligence is what the SEC says he knew while he continued to act. The complaint alleges that Jones received numerous investor complaints during the period he served as paymaster, including complaints that specifically named Bailey, Borg Bank, and Jones himself as participants in a fraud. Investors told him directly that they believed their money had been stolen and that he was complicit in the scheme. Jones continued to receive and disburse investor funds at Bailey’s direction regardless. The SEC enforcement action charges Jones with aiding and abetting violations of Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5, framing his assistance as knowing or reckless. His attorney trust account, carrying the implicit credibility of the legal profession, gave the operation a veneer of legitimacy it would not otherwise have had.
A Consent Judgment, a Permanent Injunction, and a Bar That Follows Jones for Life
U.S. District Judge Tiffany R. Johnson entered the final order on April 27, 2026. Jones consented to the judgment without admitting or denying the underlying allegations, with one significant exception: solely for purposes of bankruptcy discharge under Section 523 of the Bankruptcy Code, the complaint’s allegations are deemed admitted. That provision means Jones cannot discharge the judgment in bankruptcy. He is ordered to pay disgorgement of $9,112.52, prejudgment interest of $2,350.25, and a civil penalty of $15,000, for a total of $26,462.77 due within 30 days. The Florida Bar has its own disciplinary process separate from the federal proceeding. As of the date of publication, no public bar discipline has been announced in connection with the SEC matter.
Conclusion
Alvin Christopher Jones built his career on the credibility that comes with a Princeton degree, a law license, and years as a state prosecutor. He used that credibility, and more specifically the legal infrastructure of a professional trust account, to move money for a man who promised investors returns of 16 times their principal in transactions that never happened. The record is clear: investor complaints naming Jones as complicit arrived while the disbursements continued. The $26,462 he has been ordered to pay is modest compared to the $1.6M Bailey raised and the losses 26 investors absorbed. The injunction that follows Jones for the rest of his professional life is the more durable consequence.
