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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Recidivist’s Oil Well Ponzi Scheme|Took $30 Million, Investors Say

TULSA (CN) - A recidivist securities violator has taken $30 million in an oil well Ponzi scheme, investors say in Tulsa County Court. They say Brian Fox's fraudulent and unregistered Powder River Petroleum company is "an illegal Ponzi scheme utterly dependent on an ever increasing number of new investors to pay existing ones."

Plaintiffs say Fox is selling fractional interests in virtually worthless oil wells, and doing it by falsely "guaranteeing" 9% return on investments in 6 months.

"Moreover, the defendants have not and do not disclose to investors that defendant Fox has been previously enjoined by the Alberta Securities Commission from selling or trading securities because of another fraudulent and unregistered securities offering an another company he controlled," the complaint states.

It continues: "The defendants also omit telling investors that the operator of its most valuable lease is controlled by John Erhman, a convicted felon and well-known securities recidivist with multiple injunctions for scamming investors in the oil patch and converting those funds to his personal use ... and that Erhman is seeking to foreclose a suspicious multi-million dollar lien on the defendants' assets. [Citations omitted at the ellipsis.] As of this date, the defendants' scheme is on the brink of collapse".

Plaintiffs want a restraining order and a receiver appointed. They are represented by Cecil Drummond with Boetcher & Drummond.

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