A settlement agreement with Wealth Pools International LLC and with three New Brunswick residents has been approved, the New Brunswick Securities Commission (NBSC) announced today.

James Oagles, Jeannie Tracy, Ronald Fulton, and Wealth Pools participated in a pyramid-type investment scheme that was promoted in New Brunswick in 2006 and 2007, the NBSC said.

Under the terms of settlement, Oagles agreed to pay an administrative penalty of $10,000 as well as $2,500 toward the costs of the investigation. Tracey agreed to pay an administrative penalty of $2,000 and $500 for costs. And finally, Fulton agreed that he would have been subject to a penalty of $2,000 had he not been bankrupt. All three acknowledged that their actions had caused financial losses to people they recruited into the scheme, and also agreed to be permanently banned from trading in securities in New Brunswick.

Wealth Pools agreed to be permanently banned from trading in securities in New Brunswick and was placed in receivership by a Florida Court in December 2007. The NBSC did not seek an administrative penalty from Wealth Pools, it said, because the receiver will be collecting and redistributing Wealth Pools’ assets to harmed investors and the commission did not want to divert funds away from those efforts.

In addition, the NBSC noted that while the three respondents did not intend to defraud their victims, they were nonetheless involved in illegal activity, and ignorance of the law was not an excuse.

According to the commission, the scheme began with a spam email promoting Wealth Plans opened by Oagles. Numbers show that at least 109 New Brunswick residents invested in excess of $440,000 in Wealth Pools.

“The Commission seeks to protect the public interest by condemning these types of schemes and taking away the rewards from those who participate in them,” said Rick Hancox, executive director of the NBSC. “The Commission is sending a clear message that this sort of activity will not be tolerated in New Brunswick. Good investment opportunities simply don’t arrive unsolicited in your inbox, and we caution New Brunswickers against accepting statements in spam e-mails as fact.”