Financial Fraud: James VanBlaricum Sentenced For Participating In a Ponzi Oil And Gas Fraud Scheme

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Colleyville Businessman Sentenced to 84 Months in Federal Prison For Role in a Ponzi Oil and Gas Fraud Scheme

<h2>Colleyville Businessman Sentenced to 84 Months in Federal Prison For Role in a Ponzi Oil and Gas Fraud Scheme<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>FORT WORTH&comma; Texas — James VanBlaricum&comma; 78&comma; of Colleyville&comma; Texas&comma; was sentenced today before Senior U&period;S&period; District Judge Terry R&period; Means to 84 months in federal prison and ordered to pay &dollar;32&comma;222&comma;291 in restitution for participating in a Ponzi oil and gas fraud scheme&comma; announced U&period;S&period; Attorney John Parker of the Northern District of Texas&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>VanBlaricum&comma; who operated Signal Oil and Gas Company &lpar;SOG&rpar; and Texas Energy Management&comma; which later became Texas Energy Mutual &lpar;TEM&rpar;&comma; pleaded guilty in February 2017 to one count of mail fraud&period; He has been in custody since his arrest in mid-August 2016&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>According to plea documents&comma; VanBlaricum formed SOG and TEM&comma; ostensibly for the purpose of investing in mineral leases&comma; and oil and gas production and earning a profit from those investments&period; VanBlaricum ran the fraud scheme from approximately January 2007 to August 2016&comma; from office locations in Grapevine&comma; Texas and Bedford&comma; Texas&comma; as well as from his residence and home office located in Colleyville&comma; Texas&comma; where many of the acts and transactions alleged in the indictment took place&period; VanBlaricum raised millions of dollars from investors by various means&comma; including selling securities in the form of joint ventures in &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;programs” offered by SOG and TEM&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>VanBlaricum employed sales agents who worked on his behalf to raise money&comma; by selling limited partnership interests in these &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;programs” offered by SOG and TEM&period; Both personally and through investors&comma; VanBlaricum deceived investors and potential investors by representing that investors would earn an &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;assured” rate of return on their initial investment&comma; and they would receive a full refund of their initial investment amount after a defined period of time&period; He also represented that he intended to use a certain percentage of investors’ money to purchase mineral leases&comma; and oil and gas well projects&comma; when in fact&comma; he intended to spend a substantially smaller percentage on the leases and oil and gas well projects and use a substantial part of investors’ money for purposes they did not authorize or even know about&comma; including paying purported investment returns to other investors&comma; commissions to sales agents&comma; and paying his personal expenses as well as personal expenses for family members&comma; friends&comma; and business associates&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>VanBlaricum also represented that he had purchased certain assets&comma; or was in the process of purchasing them&comma; when in fact&comma; he had not purchased the assets and was not in the process of purchasing them&period; He also represented that the oil and gas well projects were productive and profitable&comma; when in fact&comma; most were &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;dry holes&comma;” produced oil for a short period of time&comma; or had not been drilled&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>When VanBlaricum made promises about the use of investor funds&comma; he failed to state that he had made the same promises to other investors and then used those investors’ funds for purposes they did not authorize or even know about&comma; including paying purported investment returns to other investors&comma; commissions to sales agents&comma; and payment of personal expenses for VanBlaricum and his family&comma; friends&comma; and business associates&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>VanBlaricum&comma; according to plea documents&comma; identified himself to investors using a false name&period; VanBlaricum deposited investors’ funds into&comma; and withdrew and expended investors’ funds&comma; from accounts he controlled in the names of entities he controlled&period; He caused funds to be transferred to&comma; withdrawn from&comma; and deposited into various accounts to create the appearance of business operations and revenue that he knew did not exist&period; He also caused &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;lulling” payments to be paid to investors&comma; ostensibly as returns on investment&comma; when he knew the funds came from other investors rather than from business operations&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>VanBlaricum secretly&comma; and without authorization&comma; took and spent money entrusted to him by investors for advertising&semi; vacations and international travel&semi; rent payments&semi; automobile purchases&semi; and payroll and commissions for employees and sales agents&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The U&period;S&period; Postal Inspection Service with assistance from U&period;S&period; Immigration and Customs Enforcement &lpar;ICE&rpar; Homeland Security Investigations &lpar;HSI&rpar; investigated&comma; and additional assistance was provided by the Securities and Exchange Commission&period; Assistant U&period;S&period; Attorney Douglas A&period; Allen prosecuted&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;justice&period;gov&sol;usao-ndtx&sol;pr&sol;colleyville-businessman-sentenced-84-months-federal-prison-role-ponzi-oil-and-gas-fraud">Original PressReleases&&num;8230&semi;<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;

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