News Releases

Securities Commissioner Benette L. Zivley on May 13, 2011, entered an Emergency Cease and Desist Order against a North Texas company and its affiliate, alleging the fraudulent sale and marketing of oil and gas interests to teachers and other school district employees. Insignia Energy Group Inc. and...

The court-appointed receiver in control of Retirement Value LLC, a New Braunfels life-settlement investment company shut down after an investigation by state regulators, will recommend that investors in the company receive $7.7 million in initial payments later this year. The distribution would...

Chad Michael Hays of McKinney, who was convicted of fraud and 16 other charges in connection with the sale of nearly $400,000 in fraudulent oil and gas investments, was sentenced to 25 years in state prison on April 25 in Hunt County state district court. A Hunt County jury last week convicted Hays...

State securities regulators throughout the United States are marking the 100th anniversary of the nation's first state securities law, which went into effect in Kansas on March 10, 1911. Texas enacted its first securities statute in 1913. "For 100 years, state securities regulators have served on...

Benette L. Zivley was sworn in today as the sixth Securities Commissioner in Texas history and pledged to build upon the Texas State Securities Board's 53-year record of vigilant oversight of the securities industry. "We have an awesome responsibility - to protect Texas investors - and we have had...

The Texas State Securities Board today unanimously voted to appoint Benette L. Zivley as the next Texas Securities Commissioner. Zivley, currently the Director of the Inspections & Compliance Division of the Securities Board, will assume his new duties on March 1. Zivley becomes the sixth Securities...

Four principals of Aspen Exploration Inc., the Dallas-based company that sold interests in fraudulent oil-and-gas programs to investors across the United States, pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Dallas. William Anthony "Tony"Rand, 69 years old, of Plano, and his two sons, Gregory Keith...

Wayne Anthony Rand of Rockwall was sentenced to 20 years in state prison on Monday after pleading guilty to an extensive oil-and-gas exploration scam in which he used millions of dollars of investors' money for personal expenses, including the purchase of a house, luxury speedboats, guns, and...

Howard Glenn Judah Jr. and Gregory F. Jablonski, executives for a Houston-based company that was shut down in 2009 based upon an investigation by the Texas State Securities Board, have been indicted by a Harris County grand jury. Judah , the CEO of National Life Settlements LLC of Houston, and...

Travis County state District Judge Stephen Yelenosky today approved a Temporary Restraining Order against an Austin-based firm that allegedly continued to sell illegal, high-yielding investments in violation of a Cease and Desist Order issued by the State Securities Board. The Court also granted the...