Regulators in New Brunswick have settled with an unregistered firm and several individuals, who agreed to three year trading bans after improperly soliciting a prospective investor.
The Financial and Consumer Services Commission (FCNB) Friday announced that its new adjudicative body, the Financial and Consumer Services Tribunal, has ordered that Texas Energy Mutual LLC., Fred Wolk, Len Vuolo, and Jay MacDonald Snyder, cease trading in securities in New Brunswick for three years. They also agreed to pay an administrative penalty of $5,000, and they are denied any exemptions from New Brunswick securities law for three years. The order was issued as part of a settlement agreement.
The settlement comes after a New Brunswick resident reported being contacted by representatives of the firm to invest in an oil-drilling venture in Oklahoma. “The representatives and the company were not registered to do business in the province and did not have an exemption from the prospectus requirement,” the regulator reports.
It also says that, during the solicitation, the sales reps made prohibited representations about investment returns.