Alleged $15M Oil Drilling Investment Scam Leads to SEC Charges

Financial Adviser Who Bilked Athletes, Including Mike Tyson, is Sentenced

Former SFX Financial Advisory Management Enterprises financial advisor Brian Ourand is sentenced to thirty years behind bars after he bilked a number of professional athletes, including former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, ex-NBA basketball players Glen Rice and Dikembe Mutombo, and others. Ourand must also pay back $1M of what he stole.

Not only is he accused of forging the pro athletes’ signatures on checks that he cashed but also of taking credit cards out against these clients’ accounts to cover his own spending, including restaurants, clothing, and other bills. SFX fired him in 2011.

In 2015, Ourand was charged with wire fraud, federal mail fraud, and aggravated identity theft charges. He pleaded guilty to one criminal count of wire fraud.

Meantime, in related civil charges brought by the US Securities and Exchange Commission against him, Ourand was ordered to pay a $300K penalty and more than $671K in disgorgement and interest.

SEC Accuses Two Men in $15M Oil Drilling Investment Fraud

The SEC has filed a civil case against David R Greenlee and David A. Stewart Jr., accusing them of bilking investors in an oil drilling investment fraud. According to the regulator, the two men and an accomplice ran a $15M fraud that involved a purported oil drilling investment.

According to the regulator’s case, Greenlee and Stewart recruited and oversaw a network of salesmen that sold investors a stake in a different company that was supposedly involved in enhanced oil recovery techniques to get and sell oils from wells in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. They allegedly promised investors 15-50% of profits yearly over decades.

Now, the SEC is claiming that the two men used fake names when communicating to investors to conceal criminal records and diverted almost two third of the funds to pay themselves and their sales team, as well as to pay new investors. The Commission contends that very little of investors’ money was used for the oil drilling opportunity and what was spent on the investment was used to make it appear to investors as if there was activity taking place.

Also facing SEC charges is Richard P. Underwood, who is accused of helping Stewart and Greenlee create offering materials that were fake and supervising the telemarketers who solicited investors.

FINRA Warns Investors of Scams in the Wake of Hurricane Harvey

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is cautioning investors of possible scams claiming to involve investments that could make huge profits after Hurricane Harvey. In its Investor Alert, the self-regulatory organization warned that financial fraud is not uncommon in the wake of a disaster. Among possible scams that FINRA cautioned against were those involving crowdfunding investments or stocks tied to clean-up, reconstruction, and new technology touted to supposedly help deal with current and future floods.

At Shepherd Smith Edwards and Kantas, LTD LLP, we are dedicated to helping investors of fraud recoup their losses. Contact us today to speak with one of our experienced securities fraud attorneys.

Financial Advisor to Mike Tyson Sentenced to Prison, Wealth Management, September 13, 2017

The SEC Order Against Ourand (PDF)

SEC Files Charges in Oil Drilling Investment Scheme, Investor.gov, August 11, 2017