A former associate with MML Investors Services pleaded guilty this week to wire fraud and money laundering in a scheme that defrauded at least 60 investors of more than $3.8 million, the Justice Department said. Trevor Uhls entered the plea in Missouri federal court as several victims prepare for FINRA arbitration proceedings against MML, MassMutual's advisor subsidiary.

Uhls was based in Lee's Summit, Missouri and ran the scheme starting in September 2024, according to court documents. He solicited investors' funds for fake short-term, crowdfunded real estate deals purportedly secured by promissory notes with local construction companies, prosecutors said.

Uhls claimed he was pooling capital from investors as loans to real estate development companies needing funds to buy land or renovate properties, the Justice Department said. He guaranteed that investors could get their principal back after 30 to 90 days at 10 percent to 15 percent interest, or keep the money invested and receive monthly interest payments.

In one case, Uhls texted an investor claiming they would earn 8.5 percent interest by pooling his funds with others to invest in storage units, prosecutors said. There was no evidence he ever invested the money in storage units. The borrower entity on many of the promissory notes was a Kansas City-based generational contracting services company, and the business's co-owner was related to Uhls by marriage, the Justice Department said. The owners were unaware of the notes.

Prosecutors traced the funds and found Uhls used most of them on sports betting, cryptocurrency exchange transactions, jewelry purchases and credit card payments totaling over $880,000. Between September 2024 and December 2025, Uhls gambled over $652,000 on sports bets and paid over $23,000 for chartered jet flights, the Justice Department said.

Uhls was never registered with MML and was referred to as a former associated person, according to a FINRA settlement barring him from the industry. MML filed to have him registered in 2023, but in January 2026, before FINRA could approve the paperwork, MML said it ended his contract due to inaccurate statements provided to the firm concerning a complaint alleging an unauthorized sale of promissory notes. The promissory notes were offered for sale by Uhls personally and neither MassMutual nor MML reviewed, approved or was a party to any of them, an MML spokesperson said.

Florida-based attorney Chase Carlson is representing 13 investors in a FINRA arbitration proceeding against MML, alleging that the firm failed to supervise one of its branch offices properly and to detect the scheme. Several of the victims were acquainted with each other before the scheme, and many were relatively young, in their 20s and 30s, Carlson said. Uhls was also in his late 20s at the time of the fraud. The arbitration was filed in August and a trial is likely sometime next year, Carlson said. Uhls faces up to 20 years in prison for the wire fraud charges and 10 years for money laundering, as well as monetary penalties of up to $250,000, prosecutors said.