Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton faces four new federal charges in an SEC civil court case announced today.
But Paxton still won’t resign his office.
Everything’s bigger in Texas, and the same goes for it’s top law enforcement officials legal woes stemming from his days as a lawyer and member of the Texas State House of Representatives from the suburban cities of Frisco, Allen and McKinney just north of Dallas.
“People recruiting investors have a legal obligation to disclose any compensation they are receiving to promote a stock, and we allege that Paxton and White concealed the compensation they were receiving for touting Servergy’s product,” said Shamoil T. Shipchandler, Director of the SEC’s Fort Worth Regional Office.
According to the Texas Tribune:
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed the charges Monday in a Sherman-based court. They are similar to the allegations Paxton faces in a pending indictment handed up by a Collin County grand jury last year. Paxton is named in the SEC’s complaint along with William Mapp, the founder and former CEO of Servergy Inc. Paxton is accused of raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for Servergy without disclosing he was making a commission. The case stems from when Paxton was a member of the Texas House — before he was elected attorney general in 2014.
While serving in the Texas House of Representatives, Paxton allegedly reached an agreement with Mapp to promote Servergy to prospective investors in return for shares of Servergy stock, said the SEC.
According to the SEC’s complaint, Paxton raised $840,000 in investor funds for Servergy and received 100,000 shares of stock in return, but never disclosed his commissions to prospective investors while recruiting them.
Similarly, former Servergy director Caleb White allegedly raised more than $1.4 million for Servergy and received $66,000 and 20,000 shares of Servergy stock while never disclosing these commissions to investors.
White has agreed to settle the SEC’s charges by paying $66,000 in disgorgement and returning his shares of Servergy stock to the company.
The SEC’s litigation continues against Paxton.
“We allege that Mapp deceived investors into believing that Servergy’s groundbreaking technology was generating lucrative sales to major customers when it was technologically behind its competitors and made no actual sales,” Mr. Shipchandler said.
The SEC’s complaint charges Servergy, Mapp, Paxton, and White with violating Sections 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
Servergy, Mapp, and White also allegedly violated Sections 5(a) and (c) of the Securities Act, and Paxton and White allegedly violated Section 17(b) of the Securities Act and Section 15(a) of the Exchange Act.
When will Texas rid itself of its beleaguered Attorney General and return prestige and honesty to the top elected law enforcement job overseeing justice for her 27,000,000 residents.
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