Enforcement Actions: Criminal & Civil

Dennis Woods Bowden , one of the top executives at the now-defunct AmeriFirst Funding Corp. in Dallas, was indicted May 26 in U.S. District Court in Dallas on nine counts of securities fraud and six counts of mail fraud.

Bowden, on his own and through sales agents, allegedly sold...

Leland Anthony Patin of Dallas was sentenced to seven years in prison and ordered to pay $172,500 in restitution for securities fraud.

Patin was a salesman for Edward Digges, the architect of a multistate fraudulent scheme involving the sale and lease of credit card and debit card...

A Denton County grand jury on May 6 indicted Patricia Ann Noble for securities fraud and selling securities without being a registered dealer or agent.

The indictment alleges that Noble, doing business as Noble Funds Asset Management, engaged in fraud by knowingly misrepresenting that...

A U.S. District Court jury in Dallas convicted Jeffrey C. Bruteyn of securities fraud charges resulting from his scheme to defraud investors in Texas and Florida. Bruteyn was convicted on April 14, 2010, on all nine counts of an indictment returned by a grand jury in May 2009.

Bruteyn...

George Elliott, a Belton-based salesman for a fraudulent scheme involving the sale and lease of credit card terminals, was sentenced to 12 years in state prison on one count of aggregated money laundering.

Judge Joe Carroll of the 27th State District Court in Bell County sentenced...

Martin Tyson Sr. of Horseshoe Bay on Feb. 23, 2010 was ordered to pay $200,000 in restitution to investors in an online gambling Web site that never launched.

Tyson pleaded guilty to a felony charge of sale of an unregistered security.

The Order of Deferred Adjudication and...

Penelope Lefaucheur and Matthew Earl Rager were indicted on Jan. 20, 2010, for the fraudulent sale of interests in a commercial property in San Antonio.

A Bexar County grand jury indicted both Lefaucheur – also known as Jacqueline Penelope Judge – and Rager on numerous counts, including...

A Harris County Grand Jury on Nov. 30 indicted Robert Chet Noel of Sugar Land on nine counts of securities fraud.

Noel, the president of Integrity Petroleum Group, received $154,200 from investors in Harris County for working interests in oil and gas wells.

According to the...

Alfred Renteria of San Antonio was sentenced to 10 years deferred adjudication on November 24, after pleading nolo contendere to charges of misapplication of fiduciary property and securing the execution of a document by deception.

Renteria was indicted by a Bexar County Grand Jury on...

A Potter County grand jury on Nov. 10 returned multiple indictments against John F. Langford and Jimmy Don King , principals in an Amarillo insurance agency.

Landford and King are charged with the sale of unregistered securities and fraudulent securities.

Langford was indicted on...

Stanley James, Jr. , of Richmond pleaded guilty on Oct. 12 to charges of theft, money laundering and misapplication of fiduciary property in connection with a fraudulent investment company that took in more than $385,000 from investors. Fort Bend County state District Judge Clifford Vacek...

William June Fletcher Jr. of Plano, who pleaded guilty to investment-related fraud charges in 2006, was indicted by a Collin County Grand Jury on Aug. 13 for securities fraud in connection with the sale of investments in oil and gas projects.

The indictment alleges that Fletcher failed...