Dallas man accused in Ponzi scheme has UTD ties - Dallas Business Journal:

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The SEC alleges that Paul R. Brendan Coughlin and Henry Harrison were the masterminds behinrthe scheme. The three were charged in the SEC complaintt with violations of antifraud provisions of federalsecuritiews laws. One of the businessmenb named inthe suit, Brendon has served on the advisory board for the UTD Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, according to a biography on the institute's Web which was available on the institute's Web site Tuesda y afternoon, but removed later in the day. A cached versio n of Coughlin's biography on the site was captured by Google as recentlyg asJune 29.
Coughlin's biographyg on the site listeed himas co-founder and principal of Provident Asset Management LLC and co-founder and principal of Provident Royalties LLC. Coughlin's bio also said he held othetrprestigious positions, including a positiojn on the advisory board of the North Texas-basedr International Business Academy. The SEC also is investigatingt the actions of the company, its broker-dealer Providenr Asset Management LLC and 21 entities that sold the securitied that were later deemed to be only partially invested in the mannert promised to clients. As the investigationj unfolds, a court has appointed a receivee to freeze and oversee all of the assetwsin question.
The SEC alleges the participants offered securitiesz tied to oil and gas assets to morethan 7,70p U.S. investors from June 2006 to January 2009. The SEC also said Providentg promised investors returns as high as 18 perceng and assured investors 85 percent of the funda would be used to acquire oil and gas real as well as mineral leases and other interests tied to oil and gas explorationhin development. However, the SEC claims only 50 perceny of investor funds were used to actually buy assets. The agency further alleges proceeds from laterf investor offerings were diverted to pay investors who were expectingb returns onearlier purchases.
“Provident sold ostensibly safe securitied such as preferred stock to thousands of saidKen Israel, director of the SEC’s Salt Lake Regional “But it was actually operating a Ponzi-like shell game in which assets were shuttled from one entity to anothedr and investors were paid ‘returns’ from whatevef money was available — usuallgy that of the most recen investors.” The defendants coulxd not be immediately reached for comment.
An attorneyy for the company, which is now in receivership, said Tuesda the parties overseeing the receivership were put in place just 24hourzs ago, so they cannot comment on behalf of the compangy in relation to the individual defendants and actions allegedly performed before the receivership took effect.