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Texas Man Convicted Of Securities Fraud

A federal jury on Monday convicted a Rockwall, Texas man of securities fraud arising from an investment scheme he ran, according to U.S. Attorney John Parker of the Northern District of Texas. Mark Lee Cleaton was found guilty on four counts of wire fraud and is facing a maximum penalty of twenty years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each count. United States District Judge Jane Boyle remanded Cleaton into the custody of U.S. marshals pending sentencing on February 4, 2016. Cleaton, according to court documents, was the managing member of North American Capital LLC., which was located in Dallas. Cleaton also created a limited partnership, North American Capital Investment Fund, LP ("NACIF") in August 2009. From August 2009 to July 2010, Cleaton solicited $350,000 in investments for NACIF from several people. He promised to invest that money in short-term, high-yield, real estate projects. In reality, though, he used the money for himself. Cleaton provided false investment memoranda and [...]

By |October 21st, 2015|Fraud, Press Releases & News|
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Texas Bitcoin Ponzi Scheme Operator Pleads Guilty To Securities Fraud

Trendon Shavers, a 33-year-old from McKinney, Texas who operated a Ponzi scheme using the virtual currency bitcoin, pleaded guilty to securities fraud this week. Shavers started a company, called Bitcoin Savings & Trust, in 2011 which he used to acquire bitcoins from potential investors via the web, telling them he would pay investors one percent interest on their investment every three days or seven percent a week. Rather, Shavers used the majority of the bitcoins to pay back previous investors, the defining element of a Ponzi scheme. He spent the remaining funds on a used BMW M5, a $1,000 dinner at a steakhouse in Las Vegas, and a number of casino outings. Shavers pleaded guilty in Manhattan court to one charge of securities fraud in what is being considered the first United States criminal fraud case involving bitcoin. Shavers acquired more than $750,000 bitcoins worth about $4.5 million when he ceased repaying investors and quickly shut down the company in 2012, [...]

By |September 22nd, 2015|Fraud, Press Releases & News, SEC|
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RIA Fined $2.8M And Owner Barred From Securities Industry

The SEC has fined a former registered investment adviser $2.8 million and barred its owner, Jacob Cooper, from the securities industry. Cooper, who is known as a "Main Street Madoff" by his ex-clients, is alleged to have defrauded investors by using a kickback scheme that caused about $44 million in losses. The owner of San Diego's Total Wealth Management and former host of the radio show "Uncommon Wealth," The SEC believes Cooper put the majority of the $100 million in assets he received under management at the firm with alternative investments or hedge funds that he controlled and then invested in entities with revenue sharing agreements. The SEC additionally alleges that Cooper failed to perform due diligence on the investments. At minimum, one of the investments was discovered to be a Ponzi scheme. Another investment was found to be insolvent at its inception. Between 2009 and 2014, Total Wealth Management earned $1.3 million from the revenue sharing agreements, and Cooper himself received [...]

By |August 18th, 2015|Fraud, Press Releases & News, SEC|
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FSC Securities To Pay $1.28M In Ponzi Case

FSC Securities will pay a $1.28 million arbitration award to investors who were defrauded by Aubrey Lee Price, who had feigned his death in 2012 to avoid being investigated for his $40 million Ponzi scheme. FSC, a broker-dealer in the AIG Advisor Group, was alleged by 8 investors to have failed to supervise a number of unnamed brokers, who sold the investors "unspecified fraudulent securities as part of a Ponzi scheme," according to FINRA's arbitration award. John Chapman, lawyer for the investors, claimed that Price and two ex-FSC brokers solicited investments in the primary vehicle for the scheme, which was called the PFG fund. In an investigation by the FBI, the bureau found that Price started making risky investments in 2009, after he had left FSC. Chapman claims that two FSC advisers pushed client money into the PFG fund, both of whom eventually left FSC. “FSC did a really bad job paying attention and supervision. [sic] They were asleep at the [...]

By |August 17th, 2015|Broker Check, FINRA, Fraud, Press Releases & News|
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