Texas Securities Fraud

Two Firms Charged in Texas With Running Fraudulent Commodity Pool Must Pay Over $7.5M

Published on: April 6, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

A district court in Texas is ordering a permanent injunction against RFF GP, LLC, KGW Capital Management, LLC, and Kevin White. The order is related to a 2013 Commodity Futures Trading Commission complaint charging them with fraud and misappropriation related to the running of a commodity pool.

The regulator says that defendants bilked participants when they got them to invest in the hedge fund and the commodity pool, named Revelation Forex Fund, LP. The fund was supposed to trade in off-exchange foreign currency. According to the CFTC, however, the defendants fraudulently solicited about $7.4 million from over 20 participants, misappropriating some $1.7 million from their money to cover personal spending and other matters. They allegedly fabricated the fund’s performance and lied about White’s experience in investing.

The Securities and Exchange Commission also filed its Texas securities case against White and the firms, along with a few other entities. The SEC said that White promoted a sophisticated forex trading strategy that was low risk but would lead to huge earnings. He also touted the Revelation Forex as a $1 billion hedge fund that managed to bring in returns of over 393% returns while earning an over 36% compound yearly return rate. White marketed himself as having 25 years of experience working in Wall Street when he had worked just six years as a licensed securities professional in Texas before the NYSE barred him.

Texas-Based Broker-Dealer Faces SEC Charges Over Supervisory and Customer Protection Violations

Published on: March 6, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The Securities and Exchange Commission is charging H.D. Vest Investment Securities with violating customer protection rules. The regulator contends that the Texas-based broker-dealer did not adequately supervise registered representatives that are accused of misappropriating customer monies.

H.D. Vest will pay a penalty to settle the charges. It has consented to get an independent compliance consultant that will help the firm enhance its supervisory controls.

The SEC’s order, which institutes a settled administrative proceeding, said that the firm did not have proper procedures and policies to oversee the external business activities of representatives. This allowed some of them to use outside businesses to bilk the brokerage firm’s customers. Some even deposited or moved customer brokerage funds into these external business accounts.

Texas Wyly Brothers Must Pay SEC $299.4M for Securities Fraud

Published on: February 28, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Sam Wyly and his late brother Charles Wyly’s estate must pay $299.4 million for committing securities fraud. The final judgment comes months after a jury found them civilly liable.

The SEC sued the Texas billionaire brothers in 2010. The regulator accused them of making $553 million in undisclosed profits when they traded in four companies that used trusts in the Isle of Man. The companies included Scottish Annuity & Life Holdings Ltd., Sterling Commerce Inc., Michaels Stores Inc., and Sterling Software Inc.

The SEC contends that the Wylys established the complex trust system so they could make untaxed profits from concealed trades in companies that they controlled. The scam purportedly occurred over a period lasting a decade.

Jury Says Ex-Envoy Involved in Stanford Ponzi Scam Must Pay $750K

Published on: February 16, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

A federal jury has decided that ex-U.S. Ambassador to Ecuador Peter Romero would not be allowed to keep over $758K in expenses, fees, and interest he earned while lending his legal counsel and credibility to Allen Stanford. Instead, he will pay that sum to the court appointed receiver.

Stanford was convicted in 2012 of fraud and money laundering, perpetuating a global multibillion-dollar scam in the process. His Houston-based empire was shut down in 2009 when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accused him of running his $7 billion Stanford Ponzi scam that bilked thousands of investors. The scheme involved the sale of CDs from his bank in Antigua.

Receiver Paul Janvey contends that Romero and certain other consultants did not ask the most basic questions about Stanford’s bogus banking empire. Romero was invited to serve on Stanford’s International Advisory Board after sitting next to him at an inaugural ball for President George W. Bush in 2001.

Sun Antonio Spurs Star Tim Duncan Files Texas Investment Adviser Fraud Case

Published on: January 31, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

NBA All-Star Tim Duncan is suing his investment adviser for securities fraud. The San Antonio Spurs basketball player says that his financial representative, Charles Banks, made investment recommendations based on conflicts of interest. Duncan claims that because of this he sustained substantial financial losses. According to one source, the NBA star lost more than $20 million.

In his Texas securities case, Duncan says that Banks, who gave him investment advice for seventeen years, took advantage of their relationship for personal gain. Duncan claims that Banks suggested he invest several million dollars in beauty products, hotels, sporting goods, and wineries that the latter either had a financial stake in or owned. The NBA basketball player also says that Banks was able to garner a $6.5 million bank loan using Duncan’s forged signature.

Unfortunately, professional athletes are targeted by financial fraudsters. With their large incomes and, in some cases, inexperience with managing their money and investments, there are scammers who will take advantage of their investment adviser relationship with them to try to make money. Because pro athletes can only play at the NBA, NFL, MLB, and NHL levels for a certain amount of years, unexpected and substantial financial losses caused by securities fraud may prove devastating for athletes and their families.

Texas State Securities Board Was Special Prosecutor in $1M Securities Fraud Case

Published on: January 22, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Alberto Alba Villareal was sentenced to five years behind bars for defrauding investors in a $1 million Texas securities fraud. Villareal was convicted of theft of property for stealing money. The funds he procured were supposed to go toward funding a new insurance company. The Texas State Securities Board was a special prosecutor in the case. Villareal is from South Texas.

As part of his sentence, Villarreal must pay complete restitution to the investor who purchased a $1 million investment contract in Nafta Holdings LLC, which was the new insurer’s controlling company. Villareal must also serve ten years probation.

According to court testimony and his indictment, Villareal took part in a number of financial deceptions to raise funds for the controlling company, even telling the investor that the Texas Insurance Code mandated that there be $4 million in capital and additional cash to open a new insurance company-even though the amount he quoted was about twice what the law actually stipulated.

Orders Dallas Man to Pay Over $1.4M in Restitution, Penalty Over Texas Securities Scam Involving Forex Commodity Pool

Published on: January 12, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission says that a federal court has issued a supplemental Consent Order of Permanent Injunction mandating that Steven Lyn Scott pay over $760,000 in restitution, a $700K penalty, as well as post-judgment interest for his involvement in a Forex commodity pool scam. It was the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas that put out the order, which comes after a CFTC enforcement action charged the Dallas resident with customer fund misappropriation, solicitation fraud, and registration violations related to running a commodity pool scam.

According to The Court, from early January 2009 through at least the end of March 2011, Scott fraudulently solicited a minimum of $1,146,000 from over 40 pool participants for their involvement in pool investment vehicles that were to trade in contracts, off-exchange agreements, or transactions in foreign currency on a margined or leveraged basis. Many of the participants lived in Texas and included his friends, relatives, and others.

A May 5, 2014 Consent Order, issued earlier by this same court, noted that Scott invoked the name of his entity Stewardship Financial Exchange when pursuing pool participants. He is accused of guaranteeing returns of 2-5% a month for participants that signed up for six months.

NASAA Wants Life Partners Held Accountable for Texas Securities Act Violations

Published on: December 28, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The North American Securities Administrators Association wants the Texas Supreme Court to rule that Life Partners Holdings Inc. has to face a class action securities lawsuit for selling unregistered securities. The state’s high court is set to determine whether to reverse a lower appeal court’s ruling to reinstate a case that accuses the company of selling the securities.

According to the group of securities regulators, violations of the Texas Securities Act were committed when Life Partners sold fractional interests in life insurance polices to investors and that this grounds for a case. The company wants the previous ruling, which found that life settlement contracts are not insurance contracts but are, in fact, investment contracts that are regulated under securities laws, overturned. Life Partners maintains that state securities law does not govern its product.

The putative class action securities case contends that three years ago, Life Partners was involved in a scam that involved offering and selling securities that were unregistered. A trial judge rejected the plaintiffs’ claims, accusing them of submitting a frivolous pleading.

Atlas Energy’s Oil and Gas Private Placement May Not Be Such a Good Investment for Outside Investors

Published on: December 13, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Atlas Energy LP Is inviting investors to put in at least $25,000 in an oil and gas drilling partnership in Texas and other states in exchange for shared revenue from the output from the wells. Its subsidiary, Atlas Resources LLC, is seeking to raise up to $300 million by the end of the year, with the company saying it will put in up to $145 million of its own money. However, according to Reuters, a closer look at the company’s confidential offering memorandum reveals that outside investors may not end up reaping as much as they think.

The private placement venture is called Atlas Resources Series 34-2014 LP. Private placements are unregistered securities sold to a limited number of investors via brokerage firms. Brokers can only market them to accredited investors (investors that have $1 million in assets-primary residence not included-or $250,000/year income) or institutions. Because of inflation, the number of those that qualify to be able to invest in private placements has gone up and not every investor is a high-income one. There are even retirees who now qualify.

According to the Atlas memorandum, $45 million of the money raised will go to Anthem Securities, an affiliate, to pay commissions to brokerage firms. Up to $39 million will go toward purchasing drilling leases from a different affiliate. Some of the $53 million for transport and drilling equipment may also go to affiliated suppliers. $8 million is a markup for estimated equipment costs. Atlas will get $53 million for markups and fees once drilling starts. All this lowers Atlas’s exposure by at least 40%. Once revenue starts coming in, the company is entitled to 33% of this.

Judge Orders Texas-Based Life Partners Holdings Inc., Two Executives to Pay $46.9M Over Securities Filings

Published on: December 3, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Life Partners Holdings Inc., its CEO Brian D. Pardo, and general counsel R. Scott Peden must pay $46.9M in penalties and disgorgement. This is the final judgment in the wake of a verdict in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s civil case. The jury found them liable for submitting securities filings that were misleading and untrue. Life Partners sells life insurance investments.

U.S. District Judge James Nowlin, in his judgment, said that oversight and compliance at the Texas-based company “were non-existent.” He accused the defendants of serious violations of securities laws.

The judgment is a partial vindication for the SEC. After the verdict was issued earlier this year, both sides declared the outcome a victory for each.