BULLETIN: SEC Says Utah Scammers Funneled Money To 2 Ponzi Schemes; Christopher A. Seeley, Justin G. Dickson Accused Of Conducting Offering Fraud That Raised Millions
BULLETIN: The SEC has gone to federal court to accuse two Utah men of conducting a $7.9 million offering fraud in which money that flowed from investors was used to prop up two Ponzi schemes.
Named defendants were Christopher A. Seeley, 36, of Herriman, and Justin G. Dickson, 35, of Salt Lake City. The offering fraud was conducted through Draper, Utah-based entities collectively known as “Alden View”: AVF Inc. and AV Funding LLC. The firms were described as unregistered “hard money” lending businesses that issued promissory notes that promised a high rate of return backed by real estate and quality due diligence on its borrowers, the SEC charged.
Both of the Alden View entities now are defunct, and investors are out at least $6.3 million, according to the SEC.
“In reality” the SEC charged, “Alden View funneled the majority of its investors’ funds into two Ponzi schemes that were run by its most significant borrowers.”
The hard-money scheme lasted between 2006 and 2009, affecting at least 50 investors from “multiple states” who believed they were funding a sophisticated real-estate business, the SEC charged.
The SEC identified one of the Alden View borrowers as Louis Dean Parrish, who also had a bankruptcy on his record.
A man by the same name was identified by the state of Hawaii last year as a possible Ponzi schemer. Records in Utah show a 48-year-old man by the name name was booked by the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office on Aug. 31 on charges of racketeering, securities fraud, communications fraud and customer abuse.
Louis Dean Parrish listed an address in Sandy, Utah, when booked, according to sheriff’s office records.
In 2010, Hawaii TV station KITV4 reported that a man by the same name was a suspect in an affinity-fraud and investment scheme targeted at Mormons in the state.
Utah has been plagued by fraud schemes targeted at people of faith, the FBI said last year.
Seeley and Dickson “made false, fraudulent, and material misrepresentations and omissions” to investors in their promissory notes, the SEC charged.
Read the SEC complaint.
