News Releases

We don’t mean to add to the stress of this long holiday season, but there is another kind of stress that makes decisions about holiday decorations look like a walk in the park. It’s financial stress, and making ill-advised investment decisions is a leading cause. Sometimes it’s buying into a...

The Texas State Securities Board on Nov. 14 approved the appointment of Clinton Edgar as Deputy Securities Commissioner. Edgar joined the State Securities Board in 2010. He has served as a staff attorney in the Inspections and Compliance Division and in 2016 he became the Director of the...

Lawrence Allen DeShetler , an investment adviser in The Woodlands, convinced five clients – two of whom were in their 80s – to cash out legitimate investments and transfer the money to him so he could get them higher returns. DeShetler instead deposited the money into bank accounts over which he had...

Texas Securities Commissioner Travis J. Iles on Oct. 23 entered a Disciplinary Order that suspended investment adviser John Michael McDonough for 90 days and fined 212 Advisory Group LLC $15,000 for violating a previous agreement regarding securities regulations. The Securities Commissioner in 2015...

U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel on Oct. 2 ordered Austin attorney Robert Allen Helms and his business partner, Janniece S. Kaelin , to pay $29 million in restitution to investors in the pair's oil-and-gas royalties scam. Yeakel previously sentenced Helms and Kaelin to 78 months in federal prison. The...

Federal and state securities regulators, including the Texas State Securities Board, are issuing this Investor Bulletin to highlight the key messages of World Investor Week , a week-long, global campaign promoted by the International Organization of Securities Commissions to raise awareness about...

The following is the quarterly report of administrative actions and orders taken by the State Securities Board from July 1 through Sept. 30, 2017. Michael Keith Parish: Suspended, Fined Michael Keith Parish , a San Antonio investment adviser, was suspended for 30 days and fined $5,000 for violating...

The North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) reported Sept. 26 that state securities regulators took more enforcement actions against registered members of the securities industry than non-registered individuals or firms, continuing a trend that began last year. In its 2017...

Austin attorney Robert Allen Helms and his business partner, Janniece S. Kaelin , were each sentenced to 78 months in federal prison on Sept. 12 for stealing millions of dollars from investors who sank money into an oil-and-gas royalties scam. Helms and Kaelin had pleaded guilty on April 11 to...

The Unicorn is paying the price for his financial crimes. Nicholas Baratoff Jr. , a resident of the coastal village of Sea Cliff, N.Y., near New York City, paid $360,000 in restitution on Sept. 6 to an elderly Corpus Christi woman who invested in projects that were supposedly operated by a company...