Opinion ID: 11538
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: hartford oil and gas

Text: 12 In June 1990, Hartford Oil and Gas (Hartford) 5 was incorporated to market the Silver Fox and Slover Beever wells. After that time, the name Hartford was used in place of Great Southwest Energy. Glen Chambers was later named president of Hartford. David Card (Card), a codefendant who pleaded guilty to wire fraud, worked as a sales broker. Hanks was sales manager at Hartford for a short time, and Ottesen, after returning to the company, became sales manager in spring of 1991. 13 Jeff Everett (Everett), Cushman's son-in-law, bought Foxridge Securities (Foxridge), a company that was a licensed brokerage, for Cushman. 6 At Cushman's request, Card began working at Foxridge. Cushman and Card actually operated Foxridge. Cushman made Card president of Foxridge. Hartford used Foxridge as a reference in the prospectus for the Slover Beever project. Investors would call Foxridge to obtain information regarding the project, and Card told them that [Foxridge was] doing due diligence on [Hartford.] Foxridge closed in November of 1990, and upon Foxridge's closing, Card returned to Hartford. 14 In June 1990, Card hired Grace to work for Foxridge Securities. Grace typed the prospectus for the Silver Fox well, including the criminal backgrounds of Cushman and Holloman in the prospectus. He observed Cushman remove that information from a prospectus. Grace worked for Allen Landerman, an attorney, from December 1990 until August 1991. It was Landerman's opinion that the joint ventures were not securities. Grace put together the prospectus for the Slover Beever well, the Grand Slam No. 1, and the Grand Slam No. 2. Cushman did not want the criminal histories disclosed in the prospectus because it made sales very difficult. 15 Ulrike Bell (Bell) worked for Cushman at Hartford as a bookkeeper from July 1990 to February 1991. She regularly signed checks in blank for Cushman, and Cushman asked her to make false invoices. Several of the representations about Bell's qualifications listed in the prospectus were false. 7 16 Zeigler was the personnel manager and interviewed and hired sales brokers. He knew that Foxridge's name was being given as a reference. According to Kevin Rose, who worked for Hartford, sales brokers at the companies made whatever representations were necessary to persuade investors, and the information that the brokers imparted to the investors over the phone had been supplied by Donn Cronn, Zeigler, Overstreet, Cushman, and Holloman. 17 Teresa Stauffacher, a receptionist, was instructed to give Pearsall Oil Field Supply as a reference to investors. The telephone number for Pearsall was actually a telephone in Zeigler's office at Hartford, and when that phone rang, Zeigler had Stauffacher answer it. Cushman admitted to Stauffacher that his name was not on any documents because it would be a red flag for the federal authorities. Zeigler admitted to Stauffacher that his name was not listed on anything because he had a wife and kids and was not going down.