Ontario men facing charges from SEC

A couple of Ontario men are facing charges from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in connection with an alternative energy firm accused of defrauding investors.

The SEC announced charges against Arizona-based Thunderbird Power Corp., the firm’s CEO, its former president and a consultant, alleging that they defrauded investors of more than US$1.9 million in illegal stock sales.

“As alleged in our complaint, the defendants solicited investors with false statements about Thunderbird’s wind turbine technology and then used those investor funds to wrongly enrich themselves and finance their ongoing fraud,” said Eric Bustillo, director of the SEC’s Miami office.

According to the SEC’s complaint, Thunderbird’s CEO, Richard Hinds, and two Ontario residents — former Thunderbird president Anthony Goldstein and consultant John Alexander “Lex” van Arem —violated the registration and anti-fraud provisions of U.S. securities laws when they “orchestrated the fraudulent offering and were responsible for numerous false and misleading statements.”

The regulator also alleged that Goldstein and van Arem used a network of sales agents “to email and cold call prospective investors using the false claims.”

The three men are also accused of misappropriating nearly US$850,000 “to enrich themselves and pay the sales agents to seek out more unsuspecting investors,” the SEC said.

The allegations have not been proven.

The SEC is seeking disgorgement, civil penalties and penny stock bans against the men. It’s also seeking officer and director bans against Hinds and Goldstein.

James Langton

James is a senior reporter for Advisor.ca and its sister publication, Investment Executive. He has been reporting on regulation, securities law, industry news and more since 1994.