Lawsuit alleges that Will Olinger and Svein Dyrkolbotn conspired to defraud “unsophisticated” woman by advising her to personally guarantee over $300 million in loans to Celebration Pointe entities

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Patricia “Patti” Shively has sued Will Olinger, Koss Olinger and Company, Svein Dyrkolbotn, Viking Companies, and others associated with those individuals and companies, alleging that Will Olinger and Svein Dyrkolbotn conspired to defraud her by advising her to personally guarantee over $300 million in loans for various Celebration Pointe projects, many of which are now in default.

Shively selected Koss Olinger as her investment advisor after her divorce

Patti Shively, who is now 74 years old, needed a financial advisor after her divorce from Bill Shively, the Tower Hill Insurance founder, in 2007. According to the complaint, her attorney recommended Will Olinger, head of Koss Olinger, an investment advisory company. She had never made financial decisions, and she told Olinger at an early meeting that her goal was to invest in low-risk investments to build her portfolio for her children to inherit. One of her official goals, acknowledged in writing by Koss Olinger in 2008, was “Limit Personal Liability.”

Shively’s attorney wrote that she funded accounts with the understanding that Koss Olinger would invest her money conservatively, in bonds and mutual funds, with some limited exposure to the stock market. The complaint states that Will Olinger became a close friend and confidant.

However, according to Shively’s attorney, Will Olinger never created the diverse portfolio of stocks, bonds, and investments that would have matched Patti’s needs. Instead, for over a decade, while he was supposed to be protecting her financial security, Olinger “steered Patti almost exclusively into risky and ultimately catastrophic real estate investments in Celebration Pointe to benefit his friends and other clients at her expense.”

The complaint states, “In fact, Olinger did not even bother to diversify Patti’s risky real estate investments. Instead, he dumped nearly all her money into one failing project.”

A series of loans to real estate projects

Shively’s attorney wrote that in 2009, Will Olinger told Shively she should invest in real estate. That year, she made a $1.7 million loan to Campus View South, whose managing member was Svein Dyrkolbotn. That loan was paid back in full by July 2012.

In 2010, Shively made a $1.2 million loan to Celebration Pointe, followed by loans of $1.35 million and $3 million in 2011.

In 2013, the complaint alleges, those loans were rolled into equity in Celebration Pointe Partners, LLC, which became Celebration Pointe Holdings, LLC, the main developer of Celebration Pointe. Celebration Pointe Holdings and Celebration Pointe Holdings II were managed by SHD-Celebration Pointe, LLC, which is owned entirely by Dyrkolbotn.

Over 10 years, the complaint alleges, Will Olinger advised Shively to make 80 contributions (“loans”) totaling $99,734,503 to Celebration Pointe entities, including Celebration Pointe Holdings before its bankruptcy filing in March 2024.

Shively’s attorney wrote that Will Olinger “drained Patti’s accounts” without telling her, and “no notes exist to document these so-called ‘loans'” The complaint alleges, “When Patti was consulted, Olinger would tell Patti that she had to put the money in because they had to finish the project. In a gross conflict of interest, Olinger would tell Patti, ‘you don’t want to throw Svein under the bus’ and Dylkolbotn did not have the money to contribute himself.”

The complaint alleges that Shively did not receive any benefits from her “investments” into Celebration Pointed: “Patti never received any dividends, interest, distributions, or additional equity… The truth was that the contributions were not designed to be in Patti’s best interest. Instead, the contributions helped Dylkolbotn, Viking, and Olinger, including his clients and family.”

2014 to 2024: Shively personally guarantees “dozens of loans, totaling hundreds of millions of dollars”

According to the complaint, Celebration Pointe’s main construction loan “fell apart,” the various entities took out loans from external lenders that required guarantees, and “Olinger and Dykolbotn came upon a solution: Despite Patti’s stated objective to ‘Limit Personal Liability,’ Patti and her trust, the Shively Trust, would guarantee the loans personally [emphasis in original]… Olinger and Dyrkolbotn were simply using Patti’s personal wealth as a guarantee to backfill the Celebration Pointe project and Olinger’s other clients’ investments.”

From 2014 to 2024, Shively personally guaranteed “dozens of loans, totaling hundreds of millions of dollars,” to various Celebration Pointe entities, including a $15 million loan from the State of Florida Department of Transportation in 2017. She also guaranteed $5.125 million in loans to Spurrier’s. 

Total amount personally guaranteed: over $319 million

The complaint states that the total amount personally guaranteed by Shively is over $319 million. Her attorney wrote, “Olinger pitched the loans to Patti as okay for her to sign because he had reviewed them.” She told her attorney that a “runner” from Viking would bring her the documents, she would sign them at her house, and then Viking notarized the documents without Patti being present. Her attorney wrote, “Olinger never explained to Patti that she was personally guaranteeing the loans or what personally guaranteeing the loans meant.” Some of the loans have interest rates as high as 15-20%.

Under the repayment terms, lenders could pursue a lawsuit directly against Shively in the case of a default and would not first need to file a lawsuit or exhaust its remedies against the borrower.

Shively’s attorney wrote, “Olinger later apologized to Patti and told her that he had ‘missed’ that it was a personal guaranty. This was either a lie or an admission of Olinger’s complete negligence and dereliction of duty as an investment advisor.” In 2023, Olinger “approached Patti and told her that she needed to invest another $6 million into the project.” When she said she did not want to do that, Olinger allegedly responded that she was “in too deep” to get out of the project.

“Simply put, without Patti’s contributions and guarantees on the loans, the entire Celebration Pointe project would have collapsed.”

The complaint states, “Simply put, without Patti’s contributions and guarantees on the loans, the entire Celebration Pointe project would have collapsed.”

Olinger allegedly advised Shively to take out mortgages on her children’s homes

In 2019, Olinger allegedly advised Shively to take out a mortgage on homes she had bought for her children; she took out mortgages on two of her children’s homes for millions of dollars to “continue funneling money to Dyrkolbotn, Viking, and Celebration Pointe.”

Olinger allegedly advised Shively to make payments on loans for Celebration Pointe entities

On March 14, 2024, Celebration Pointe entities filed for bankruptcy; Olinger “again convinced Patti to make whatever payments Dyrkolbotn told them needed to be made, including payments on loans that she personally guaranteed.” According to her attorney, Shively contributed over $15 million more to the project after the bankruptcy case was filed.

“Patti stands to lose everything she owns.”

In a reorganization plan filed in November 2024, Shively’s attorney wrote, Olinger “represented that Patti could commit more than $75 million to the Bankruptcy Plan to pay lenders and fund monthly project deficits… As Olinger well knew, Patti did not and does not have the funds to support the Bankruptcy Plan,” which required a lump sum payment of $37 million, scheduled for May 2025. Shively has reportedly “settled” several loans for close to the full amount of what was owed, but “Olinger… told the debtors and lenders involved in the process that she had the money. She did not. The Bankruptcy Plan is now in jeopardy.”

Twelve lawsuits have been filed against Shively as the borrower or guarantor on various loans that have not been paid, including a lawsuit filed in May 2025 by Ken and Linda McGurn seeking payment for an $8.4 million loan. Those loans exceed $100 million, and, her attorney wrote, “Patti stands to lose everything she owns.”

Conflicts of interest

In a section on conflicts of interest, Shively’s attorney wrote, “Over the course of the project, Will Olinger steered scores of other Koss Olinger clients into Celebration Pointe investments that Olinger desperately needed to protect… Dyrkolbotn’s exposure was acute… His entire professional career rested on [the success of Celebration Pointe]. Olinger’s reputation rested on the project as well… To preserve his reputation and ensure his friends, family members, and clients did not lose their shirts in a bungled real estate project, Olinger backfilled the project with Patti’s money, reputation, guarantees, and credit.” Her attorney alelged that many other investors received distributions while “Patti… never received a single distribution… Dyrkolbotn and Olinger set up the structure of the Celebration Pointe entities to ensure that result. Patti was first in, but last out.”

The complaint alleges that Olinger and other employees and officers of Koss Ollinger failed to perform their fiduciary duties and “either participated in, knew of, or were negligent in turning a blind eye to Olinger’s scheme to defraud Patti.”

Dyrkolbotn was allegedly actively involved

Shively’s attorney wrote, “Dyrkolbotn continuously prodded Olinger to provide more and more of Patti’s money, and more and more loans that she guaranteed, to benefit Celebration Pointe,” while knowing “of her inexperience in real estate investment, her age, her lack of financial sophistication, and her extreme and ever-increasing financial commitment to the project.” The complaint also alleges that employees of Dyrkolbotn’s company, Viking, were involved in obtaining Patti’s signatures on the loans and notarizing them after the fact.

The lawsuit asks for compensatory damages, including lost profits, attorney’s fees, and punitive damages.

List of counts

• Count I – Will Olinger and Koss Olinger breached their fiduciary duty toward Shively
• Count II – Tim Roark (a partner of Koss Olinger) breached his fiduciary duty
• Count III – The Control Defendants (Koss Olinger employees) breached their fiduciary duty
• Count IV – Dyrkolbotn and Viking aided and abetted these breaches of fiduciary duties
• Count V – Will Olinger and Koss Olinger engaged in fraud that led to significant financial damages
• Count VI – Dyrkolbotn and Viking aided and abetted that fraud
• Count VII – Olinger and Dyrkolbotn conspired to defraud Shively
• Count VIII – Will Olinger and Koss Olinger made false statements to Shively to induce her to enter into loan agreements and guarantees
• Count IX – Will Olinger and Koss Olinger engaged in gross negligence with regard to Shively’s accounts
• Count X – The Control Defendants (Koss Olinger employees) engaged in gross negligence
• Count XI – Olinger and Koss Olinger engaged in negligent misrepresentation of material fact in the representations of their services
• Count XII – Unjust enrichment (against all defendants_
• Count XIII – Koss Olinger wrongfully asserted control over Shively’s property