Financial Fraud: Stanley Jonathan Fortenberry Pleaded Guilty To Fraud Two Investment Companies

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<h2 id&equals;"node-title">Texas Man Pleads Guilty to Running Fraudulent Investment Companies and Obstructing Securities and Exchange Commission Investigation<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<div class&equals;"field field--name-field-pr-body field--type-text-long field--label-hidden">&NewLine;<div class&equals;"field&lowbar;&lowbar;items">&NewLine;<div class&equals;"field&lowbar;&lowbar;item even">&NewLine;<p>A San Angelo&comma; Texas&comma; man pleaded guilty today to fraud and obstruction of justice charges in connection with two investment companies he ran that defrauded investors out of approximately &dollar;900&comma;000 over a four-year period&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Assistant Attorney General Leslie R&period; Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division&comma; U&period;S&period; Attorney John R&period; Parker of the Northern District of Texas and Special Agent in Charge Thomas M&period; Class Sr&period; of the FBI’s Dallas Office made the announcement&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Stanley Jonathan Fortenberry&comma; 50&comma; pleaded guilty to two counts of mail fraud and one count of obstructing an official proceeding before U&period;S&period; Magistrate Judge D&period; Gordon Bryant Jr&period; of the Northern District of Texas&period;  Sentencing will be scheduled at a later date&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As part of his guilty plea&comma; Fortenberry admitted that he ran an investment company called Premier Investment Fund &lpar;Premier&rpar;&comma; which raised funds from investors for social media projects run by another company with ties to the country music industry&period;  Fortenberry misled investors about the profitability of the company and about the destination of the investors’ funds&period;  Fortenberry admitted that he diverted approximately half of investors’ funds into his own pocket and to pay the expenses of his fundraising operation&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Fortenberry also admitted that&comma; from 2013 to 2014&comma; he ran Wattenberg Energy Partners &lpar;Wattenberg&rpar;&comma; which raised funds for oil and gas drilling projects in northern Colorado&period;  Fortenberry admitted that he set up the company in his son’s name because he was then under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission &lpar;SEC&rpar; for misusing the Premier investors’ funds&period;  He used a network of salespeople to solicit individuals over the phone to invest in drilling projects&period;  Fortenberry admitted that he spent the vast majority of the funds on himself and the company’s fundraising operation&period;  In October 2014&comma; at an administrative hearing with the SEC&comma; Fortenberry falsely denied having control of or working for Wattenberg&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Fortenberry admitted that the total loss to victims of both schemes was &dollar;887&comma;311&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As part of the department’s investigation into Wattenberg&comma; Peter Szondy&comma; 70&comma; and Stanley Stephen Fortenberry&comma; 24&comma; both pleaded guilty and admitted to committing fraud while working for Wattenberg&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The FBI’s Dallas Office investigated the case&period;  Trial Attorney William E&period; Johnston of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U&period;S&period; Attorney Sean Long of the Northern District of Texas are prosecuting the case&period;  The SEC has provided substantial assistance in this case and referred this matter to the department&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Fraud Section plays a pivotal role in the department’s fight against white collar crime around the country&period;  Today’s guilty plea is part of efforts underway by President Obama’s <a class&equals;"wpil&lowbar;keyword&lowbar;link" href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;fraudswatch&period;com&sol;tag&sol;financial-fraud&sol;" title&equals;"Financial" data-wpil-keyword-link&equals;"linked" data-wpil-monitor-id&equals;"656">Financial<&sol;a> Fraud Enforcement Task Force &lpar;FFETF&rpar;&comma; which was created in November 2009 to wage an aggressive&comma; coordinated and proactive effort to investigate and prosecute financial crimes&period;  With more than 20 federal agencies&comma; 94 U&period;S&period; Attorneys’ offices and state and local partners&comma; it is the broadest coalition of law enforcement&comma; investigatory and regulatory agencies ever assembled to combat fraud&period;  Since its formation&comma; the task force has made great strides in facilitating increased investigation and prosecution of financial crimes&semi; enhancing coordination and cooperation among federal&comma; state and local authorities&semi; addressing discrimination in the lending and financial markets and conducting outreach to the public&comma; victims&comma; financial institutions and other organizations&period;  Over the past three fiscal years&comma; the department has filed more than 10&comma;000 financial fraud cases against nearly 15&comma;000 defendants&comma; including more than 2&comma;700 <a class&equals;"wpil&lowbar;keyword&lowbar;link" href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;fraudswatch&period;com&sol;category&sol;mortgage&sol;" title&equals;"mortgage" data-wpil-keyword-link&equals;"linked" data-wpil-monitor-id&equals;"82">mortgage<&sol;a> fraud defendants&period;  For more information on the task force&comma; visit <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;stopfraud&period;gov&sol;">www&period;stopfraud&period;gov<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;justice&period;gov&sol;opa&sol;pr&sol;texas-man-pleads-guilty-running-fraudulent-investment-companies-and-obstructing-securities">Original PressReleases&&num;8230&semi;<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;

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