William Seelye told investors he was a successful oilman in the classic Texas mold. A regular J.R. Ewing.
So did
Kelly G Rogers.
Using investor funds as working capital, he was reportedly able to deliver significant returns through drilling or reworking wells throughout Texas and Oklahoma. Investors anted up more than $400,000, but their monies often didn’t make it to the oilfield.
Seelye instead used their funds to make payments to his mortgage and credit card companies and to sustain his lifestyle. Not surprisingly, his oil drilling program turned out to consist mostly of phantom projects and low-producing wells.
In Williams Seelye's case, the only return on investment was a 99-year state prison sentence, which was secured in a Collin County courtroom in 2010 by the Texas State Securities Board.
Now comes
Kelly G Rogers where investors anted up $2,800,000.
Bradley Dean was told
Land and Minerals Corporation would buy royalty interests, package it with other interests and sell them with his $102,000 investment.
Rogers told Dean he would return $122,000 within six weeks of the investment. Dean signed a JV Agreement and forwarded his money on February 2nd, 2009.
But his money never purchased any royalty interests.
Instead, Kelly G Rogers wired $193,618 to a bank account for Series C, LP in Tulsa, Oklahoma on the same day Dean wired his money. No royalty interest, no packaging it with other interests and no sales.
What will be the return on investment for
Kelly G Rogers for his part?
Background Information
On February 2nd, 2009, Kelly and
Carrie S Rogers enter into an agreement with Timothy Woods of Series C, LP to borrow $125,000 (at no interest) to be paid back by May 1, 2009.
Seven days later on February 9th, 2009,
Kelly G Rogers acting as President of
Land and Minerals Corporation (LMC), signs a joint venture agreement with Bradley Dean to invest $102,000. Dean was due $122,000 by March 20th.
If you're keeping score, Rogers in now obligated for $247,000 by May 1st, 2009.
At this point
Kelly G Rogers failed to disclose he'd been sued by the
SEC and agreed to a $153,000 final settlement. Additionally, he failed to disclose he was being sued by multiple investors over other deals.
Apparently you're required to follow disclosure protocols established by the
State Securities Commission of Texas. Oops! You'd think a smart like Rogers could figure that out.
Back to Dean. On February 10th, 2009, Dean wires $102,000 to LMC but
Kelly G Rogers calls an audible and immediately wires $193,618 to a bank account for Series C, LP in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Unknown to Dean, from March 13th to April 13, four contractors doing remodeling work on Rogers home file M/L affidavits against the 8 Riva Ridge home for unpaid bills totaling $196,372.
Combine the $196,372 to the $247,000 (Series C + Dean) and Rogers now owes $521,372 by May 1st. Rogers will go one to file personal Chapter 11 on July 27th, 2009.
Someone is Lying
In the August 3rd, 2009 Section 341 bankruptcy meeting transcript,
Kelly G Rogers testified that
Carrie owned
LMC. The LAST thing he wants is to have LMC ownership be tied to him.
He repeats this claim at an August 25th, 2009 deposition, where Kelly testifies that
Carrie owns LMC and he was President.
But suddenly, in a May 12th, 2010 motion filed by Kelly (acting as legal representative for his wife Carrie),
Carrie swears that she had
NEVER had ownership interest in LMC. What????
But the best part; at an April 3rd, 2012 evidentiary hearing, Kelly contradicts his Section 341 and August 25th, 2009 deposition testimony and stated that his wife, Carrie, owned NO interest in LMC and that "
the actual ownership of the corporation is in a trust. That trust is managed by Carrie Rogers, my wife."
So draw your own conclusions but it looks like they're trying to manipulate the ownership to best protect their earnings from those investors who were owed money. And throw in the fact the LMC entity was forfeited on July 30th, 2010 by the Texas Secretary of State for failure to pay franchise taxes.
Now the Rogers have some real jeopardy-- no corporate veil of liability protection of corporate officers...it's now all personal liability.
Fraud
So the logical assumption as to why Kelly insisted Carrie owned LMC back in 2009 is simple. Theoretically LMC was making $35k a month (as reported in the bankruptcy filing) and Kelly was filing chapter 11 and wanted to repay his debt from this income. He didn't want Carrie to declare bankruptcy--so he said she owned it to keep it out of the bankruptcy estate.
But when he failed to pay Bradley Dean the $122,000 owed, it now became a problem to have Carrie the owner of LMC because FRAUD allows for the piercing of the corporate veil and Dean could now get to Carrie personally.
Best of all, Kelly was the attorney that put together Carrie's May 12th, 2010 affidavit where Carrie said she was
NOT the owner despite his
SWORN testimony.
We've know for a long time that
Kelly G Rogers was a pathological liar and now its been nicely documented and packaged up into five felony indictments.
Illegal Actions
"Kelly G Rogers swindled Dean out of $102,000 with false promises that he and Land and Minerals would pay Dean $122,000 by March 20, 2009. But Rogers and the company simply wired the money to Series C LP in Oklahoma. No evidence indicates that they bought anything or tried to perform on the Joint Venture contract. The company never made a substantial payment to Dean. Judging from the nature of the description of other creditors' motions and objections on the Court's docket sheet, Rogers swindled others as well. On February 1, 2012, the Chapter 7 Trustee found that there were no non-exempt assets for distribution".
"On Friday, May 4, 2012, state authorities arrested Rogers on multiple felony counts, including two counts of theft of property (over $200,000), fraud (in which he obtained over $1,000,000), obtaining over $1,300,000 by deception (including $102,000 from Dean), and another count of obtaining over $200,000 by deception. On the same day, Rogers posted--or arranged for the posting--of a $250,000 bond."
