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Articles Posted in Texas Securities Act

Austin, Texas Investor Wins $ 2.8 Million in Arbitration on Claims Under The Texas Securities Act

Investors in Private Offerings in Texas Have Substantial Tools At Their Disposal Through the Texas Securities Act (TSA).

In February of 2018, we posted a piece about how the Texas Securities Act was a “Powerful Tool For Victims of Oil and Gas Fraud” and we discussed how the TSA might apply to oil and gas investments, as we were seeing a significant number of investors’ inquiries about their investments in private oil and gas deals.  As we noted, the TSA considers “any interest in or under an oil, gas or mining lease” to be a security.  It is true that the TSA is a powerful tool for oil and gas investors that have been lied to about a deal, but the TSA is not limited to just oil and gas deals, but is applicable to the offer or sale of any security or investment contract.   In this post, we highlight one of the firm’s recent awards where our client received all of his investment back, plus interest, costs, and a substantial award for his attorneys’ fees.   The investment was not in an oil and gas deal, but was a somewhat typical investment in a start-up venture.

The Texas Securities Act , when applicable, is an extremely powerful tool for any investor seeking to recover an investment and other damages when they have been a victim of fraud or when the Texas Securities Act (TSA) has been technically violated, and this is particularly true when an investor invests in a private oil and gas deal that may not be compliant with the TSA or when the deal is misrepresented, or perhaps an outright scam.  Oil and gas scams are, in fact, a staple of the enforcement actions brought by the Texas State Securities Board, and even though the Texas State Securities Board often shuts down the scams and the scammers, investors don’t always get compensated for their losses.

With the stock market reaching recent all time highs in late 2017 and going into 2018, private investment will predictably increase, and in Texas, a lot of investment dollars find their way into oil and gas drilling programs and other investments tied to our so-called “black gold.”   One recent Houston Chronicle article made a good case of why we will see more and more money flowing into the oil and gas and drilling sectors in Texas.   In short, with the price per barrel up from lows of last year, and with the Texas economy booming, it is reasonable to predict that there will be much more drilling activity, and investment into drilling activity.  This usually translates to more private investment opportunities for individual investors in the Texas oil and gas sector, and this predictably will attract promoters and other scam artists hoping to exploit gullible and unsophisticated investors hoping to take part in the energized energy sector.  And, surprisingly, it is still common for promoters of oil and gas deals to abscond with investors’ dollars.

Investments in oil and gas can come in many shapes and sizes.  Investors can, of course, invest in a variety of publicly traded securities, including mutual funds, ETFs, Master Limited Partnerships, and specific companies (e.g. Exxon Mobile, Royal Dutch, and many others who are headquartered in Texas) whose share value is tied to the oil and gas industry.  Investing in a public traded vehicle generally eliminates the opportunity for most registration fraud, IF you are investing through a registered broker that makes a suitable recommendation in light of your investment objectives, risk tolerances, sophistication, and financial condition, but when you are investing in a private investment, the potential of securities fraud may be increased.

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