SEC Charges Texas Entities Over Oil and Gas Fraud
From the Desk of Jim Eccleston at Eccleston Law:
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged The Heartland Group Ventures, Heartland Production and Recovery, six other Heartland-affiliated entities, four Heartland-affiliated individuals as well as several oil and gas operators.
The SEC’s charges pertain to five fraudulent and unregistered oil and gas offerings. According to the complaint, the Heartland-affiliated entities fraudulently generated at least $122 million since October 2019 from nearly 700 investors through the five unregistered securities. The funds purportedly were raised to drill new oil wells in Texas. However, the Heartland-affiliates spent only around half of the investor funds on the oil and gas projects, which raised less than $500,000 in revenue, according to the SEC.
By late 2019, the Heartland-affiliates utilized $26 million of investor funds to make Ponzi-style payments to earlier investors while the affiliates regularly misrepresented the status of the oil and gas projects. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas has already issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) and asset freeze against the defendants and their entities.
Eccleston Law LLC represents investors and financial advisors nationwide in securities, employment, regulatory and disciplinary matters.
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