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Kentucky Oil Operator Pleads Guilty To Securities Fraud

Mark Cornell, owner of JMACK Energy, pleaded guilty to securities fraud in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky last week, admitting that he engaged in a scheme that bilked investors out of three million dollars. According to court records, Cornell's co-defendants gave investors false information regarding oil wells to represent that they were producing massive amounts of oil. In his plea agreement, Cornell confessed that his job in the scheme was to act as the local operator of a number of reworked wells for which production levels were exaggerated. He was paid a substantial amount of money to rework the wells and to provide guarantees of these excessive production levels. Those guarantees were then used to sell royalty interests in the wells to investors through high-pressure telephone tactics. Cornell is scheduled to be sentenced in June. He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years imprisonment. In addition to his criminal case, Cornell was sued by [...]

By |March 11th, 2015|Press Releases & News|
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Alabama Man Sentenced For Securities Fraud Conspiracy

Russell Hopkins of Northport, Alabama was sentenced in federal court to four years and three months in prison without parole for his participation in a $10.2 million securities fraud and wire fraud conspiracy. U.S. District Judge Brian C. Wimes also ordered Hopkins to pay $673,465 in restitution to his victims. The scheme allegedly bilked thousands of investors in both the United States and Canada who purchased shares in Petro America Corporation, which was represented to be a profitable company with $284 billion in assets. Over 12,000 people invested more than $10.2 million in Petro America. Despite the representations made to the potential investors, Petro America had no oil or realistic prospects for obtaining, moving, or storing large amounts of oil. The company had no significant assets, no revenue, and no employees other than its CEO. Hopkins solicited Petro America securities despite not being licensed to sell securities and multiple cease and desist orders. Hopkins and other conspirators used religious language [...]

By |March 6th, 2015|Press Releases & News|
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Georgia Financial Adviser Accused Of Defrauding Elderly Couple

The Frankowski Firm is continuing its investigation of Leavitt Sanders and the firms with which he has been associated as further allegations surface against them. John D. and Maxine S. Bankston of Lilburn, Georgia have accused financial adviser Leavitt Sanders of fraud and numerous securities violations. The couple, who are in their eighties, filed their claims with FINRA alleging that Sanders mismanaged and churned their securities accounts by trading excessively in high-risk investments, which included put and call options on futures contracts and day-trading massive stock positions on margin. The Bankstons’ statement of claim asserts that "Mr. Sanders used a 'one size fits all' investment strategy with all of his clients, including the Bankstons, without regard to whether it was prudent or suitable." According to the SEC, Sanders managed $30 million in about 200 investor accounts. Triad Advisors, Inc., with whom Sanders was previously associated, fired Sanders on December 26, 2014. According to FINRA records, as of February 16, 2015, [...]

By |March 6th, 2015|Press Releases & News|
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FINRA Sanctions Alabama Broker Terry Bagwell

Alabama stockbroker and supervisor Terry Bagwell submitted a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver, and Consent (“AWC”), accepting and consenting to FINRA’s findings that he violated the regulatory authority’s rules. Bagwell, who is currently associated with Pruco Securities, LLC, was the supervisor of a registered representative who sold eighteen individuals millions of dollars in investments as part of a Ponzi scheme. Bagwell became aware that the representative was involved in private securities transactions that were not approved by the firm and then personally participated in them himself. Bagwell failed to reasonably supervise the representative and report the violations to the firm. FINRA found that on April 20, 2012 and August 22, 2012, Bagwell provided $25,000 and $10,000, respectively, to the representative so that he could invest Bagwell’s funds in securities at an outside brokerage account maintained by the representative. On December 12, 2012 and March 29, 2013, Bagwell received investment proceeds and realized a $7,600 gain from the investments. Additionally, FINRA noted [...]

By |March 4th, 2015|Press Releases & News|
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