Texan Sentenced to 20 Years in Oil-Gas Ponzi Scheme

Alan Todd May, 46, who pleaded guilty in December 2010 to one count of mail fraud, admitting that he raised approximately $7 million in investor funds under false pretenses, was sentenced yesterday by U.S. District Judge Jane J. Boyle to the statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison. The Court stated that it will address the issue of restitution within 90 days.

May has been in custody since his arrest in June 2010 in San Francisco on a related federal criminal complaint. 

May formed Prosper Oil & Gas, Inc. and was its president. Prosper purported to own and operate oil and gas leases in several states, including Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado and Arkansas.

According to plea documents filed in the case, beginning in July 2008, and continuing through the beginning of March 2010, May ran a scheme to obtain, by false and fraudulent pretenses, obtained approximately $7 million from investors to purchase royalty interests in oil and gas leases.

To sell these royalty interests, May, along with others, made various false and misleading statements to investors, according to court documents. For example, May and others told investors that the royalty interests for sale had yielded, or would yield, annual returns greater than 25%. As a result of these representations, Prosper sold purported royalty interests to more than 170 investors.

Not the full story

In fact, in operating their massive Ponzi scheme, May and others were:

• selling mineral interests that Prosper didn’t own;
• overselling mineral interests that Prosper did not own;
• wildly overstating the production revenue for Prosper’s leases in order to sell mineral interests; and
• making Ponzi payments, disguised as “royalty” payments, to investors.

May admitted using investor funds for extravagant personal expenses and to make payments to his mother, daughter, brother and ex-wife. 

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) opened a separate investigation into May and Prosper Oil and Gas, and in March 2010 filed a civil complaint against them alleging that May and Prosper raised at least $6 million from at least 99 investors throughout the U.S. in fraudulent securities offerings, consisting of fractional, undivided royalty interests in oil and gas properties.

U.S. District Judge Sam A. Lindsay ordered that Prosper Oil and Gas, and any assets of Alan May, be placed in receivership. The SEC identified six accounts that Prosper Oil & Gas used to receive investor funds, receive oil and gas revenues, and make payouts to Prosper’s investors. Those accounts revealed approximately $6.7 million in total incoming investor funds; approximately $441,000 of total oil and gas revenue; and approximately $1.2 million of investor distributions.