SEC Blows Whistle on First-Down Lasers

MIAMI (CN) - Claiming he had a "laser line system" to mark first downs, a Miami Beach man, assisted by securities recidivists, illegally sold unregistered shares of his company Thought Development Inc. to 90 investors, the SEC claims in court.

The SEC sued Alan G. Amron and his company in Federal Court, and filed separate lawsuit against Amron's alleged cronies. While Amron settled immediately, the second case remains pending.

Amron claimed his company had "a portfolio of products and inventions, including a laser-line system designed to mark first downs in professional and college football games," the SEC said in its lawsuit. "TDI states its laser-line system generates a green line on the field which is visible in the stadium to players, fans and on television. TDI represents that use of its technology would decrease the time used by officials to determine first downs and generate more time to be sold to television advertisers."

He sold shares of TDI, without registering them with the SEC, according to the complaint.

Premiere Consulting, of Hollywood, Fla., raised $1.3 million from at least 90 investors for the unregistered stock, the SEC says in its complaint.

Amron and his company paid $10,000 to immediately settle the charges without admitting wrongdoing.

In a second lawsuit, in Fort Lauderdale Federal Court, the SEC claims two people and two companies were in cahoots with Amron and TDI: defendants Advanced Equity Partners LLC, Premiere Consulting LLC, Peter D. Kirschner, and Stuart M. Rubens.

Kirschner, of Delray Beach, was a managing member of Premiere and is a managing member of Advanced Equity. In 2006 he was ordered to pay $164,000 in fines and disgorgement and ordered not to commit securities fraud again, according to the SEC complaint.

Rubens, of North Miami Beach, "has been subject to two formal actions for violations of investment-related rules or regulations," the SEC says.

Advanced Equity and Premiere Consulting are both based in Hollywood, Fla., and neither ever registered with the SEC.

These defendants are accused of offering unregistered shares of TDI to at least 200 people throughout the country, "most of whom were senior citizens."

Claiming that the NFL was negotiating with TDI to use its laser line system at the 2013 Super Bowl, "The defendants and their sales agents lured victims into investing in TDI by making false promises about investment returns on and timing of a purportedly pending initial public offering," the SEC says. "Premiere and Advanced Equity's sales agents also misled investors concerning the status of negotiations by TDI with the National Football League ('NFL'), including the use of TDI's technology at the 2013 Super Bowl.

"The defendants and their sales agents also failed to disclose to investors that they retained or paid their sales agents transaction-based commissions or other fees of at least 75 percent of investor proceeds, and misrepresented to investors their funds would be used to develop TDI's technology and bring the company public.

"Even after TDI terminated them, Kirschner, Rubens and their sales agents continued soliciting investors on behalf of their new company, Advanced Equity, while duping investors into believing they had purchased shares of TDI, when in fact they had not. Not only did these investors fail to receive TDI stock certificates, but Kirschner and Rubens used nearly all of investor funds for personal use and to pay their sales agents."

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