Securities & Exchange Commission v. USA Real Estate Fund 1, Inc.

30 F. Supp. 3d 1026, 2014 WL 2892539, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 87938
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Washington
DecidedJune 26, 2014
DocketNo. CV-13-0157-LRS
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 30 F. Supp. 3d 1026 (Securities & Exchange Commission v. USA Real Estate Fund 1, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Washington primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Securities & Exchange Commission v. USA Real Estate Fund 1, Inc., 30 F. Supp. 3d 1026, 2014 WL 2892539, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 87938 (E.D. Wash. 2014).

Opinion

ORDER GRANTING SUMMARY JUDGMENT TO PLAINTIFF AND DISMISSING DEFENDANT’S MOTIONS

LONNY R. SUKO, Senior District Judge.

BEFORE THE COURT is the Defendant Daniel F. Peterson’s Motion for- Summary Judgment Dismissal (with prejudice), ECF No. 30, filed February 26, 2014; and Plaintiff Securities and Exchange Commission’s Cross-Motion For Summary Judgment, ECF Nq. 34, filed on March 20, 2014 and noted without oral argument on June 18, 2014.

SUMMARY OF FACTS1

In 2009, Defendant Daniel F. Peterson (“Peterson”) founded USA' Real Estate Fund 1, Inc. (“USA Fund”), a Washington state corporation that he operated from his home in Spokane Valley, until May 2013. Peterson was USA Fund’s Chairman, President, and, with his wife, its majority stockholder, and he managed and controlled all aspects of its operations. Peterson sold USA Fund common stock to 21 persons in exchange for money they provided. Peterson raised more than $400,000 from these investors. The records from USA Fund’s bank (J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, N.A.) reveal that from October 22, 2010 through June 13, 2012, USA Fund deposited a total of $435,495, which it had received from 21 different persons. Peterson stated that the purpose of selling the common stock of USA Fund to the investors was “[t]o raise capital” and the price per share and amount of each investment varied based on “how bad we needed the money and the purchaser, what they wanted to put money in.” The funds paid by the investors, according to Peterson, “were put into USA [Fund].” Those funds were used, in turn, to pay compensation and travel expenses to Peterson, and to pay two other individuals who were working for USA Fund.

Peterson also exchanged an additional 61,042 shares of common stock of USA Fund for a debt owed to 26 persons from another failed investment scheme. On July 14, 2010, prior to selling or exchanging any of these shares, Peterson filed a Form D2 with the Commission on behalf of USA Fund for his purported future multi-billion dollar offering. Peterson filed three subsequent amendments to the Form D on May 24, 2011, September 9, 2011 and January 30, 2013. The Form D and the amendments each announced USA Fund’s intent to offer and sell between $100 million and $100 billion worth of securities. The original and first two amended Forms D further identified “revenues” of USA Fund to be at that time in the range of between $25 million to $100 million.

Peterson’s assertions of positive revenues in the Form D and amendments were [1029]*1029false, as Peterson has since acknowledged that USA Fund actually earned no revenues prior to the July 14, 2010 filing, and also did not earn any revenues through September 9, 2011, the time of the second amendment. The third amended Form D filed on January 20, 2013 indicated revenues of between $1 and $1 million, but Peterson has acknowledged that USA Fund still has zero revenue. The Form D contains a “no revenues” option.

In addition to the sales of shares to the 21 persons to obtain more than $400,000, Peterson and USA Fund also solicited additional investors, and additional investments, by offering to sell them USA Fund common stock. In an email newsletter attachment Peterson sent in April 2012 to investors, he stated: “we have decided to give each of you a chance to increase you stock holdings [sic] in the company. The opportunity will run until the 16th of April. You may buy as little as 200 shares at $2.00 per share. We will make available as a company enough shares to cover any requests received and paid for by the deadline up to 200,000 shares.”

Peterson admits, he and USA Fund have no current means to make money for, or to pay back, the common stock investors, as USA Fund “has never opened for business” and is currently “inactive.” But Peterson has consistently claimed that USA Fund will offer new securities in a multi-billion dollar offering that will be the mechanism by which current common shareholders will be enriched. In his marketing plan set out as Exhibit C to his Motion,3 Peterson states that in July 2010, he and USA Fund prepared a filing for a $2 billion offering, just a few months before he obtained the first of the funds from common stock investors. Peterson claims that, through this new offering, raising “more than a billion dollars of investment capital is very reasonable,” purportedly based on his own assumptions including selling more than a hundred million dollars of the new securities each month for a year.4 Peterson claims this future offering has been made possible by a statute signed into law on April 5, 2012 called the Jumps-tart Our Business Startups Act or the “JOBS Act.” Pub.L. No. 112-106, 126 Stat. 306 (2012). In emails to investors, and in public filings with the Commission, Peterson claimed that USA Fund would raise billions of dollars in investment capital by selling securities to the public. Peterson told the USA Fund common stock purchasers that the multi-billion dollar offering would be the means for a significant pay-out to them.

By way of example, in an April 28, 2012 email and offering letter to prospective common stock investors, Peterson claimed that, following his multi-billion dollar offering of preferred securities, the price of USA Fund common stock would increase to $150 per share, as compared with the $.50 per share they would be paying to obtain the stock. Peterson states in his Motion For Dismissal that he told investors about how the envisioned multi-billion dollar securities offering would be “secured” or “insured.” For example, Peterson states: “The investors’ invested capital is protected by placing a percentage of those funds into -selected cash equivalent items such as U.S. Government Treasury bonds/notes and Top Ten World Bank Certificates of Deposit which will accumulate interest annually, that interest is reinvested every year until the maturity buy back date at which time the investor is returned [1030]*1030the amount of their investment.”5

On USA Fund’s website, it similarly states: “our investors will know the exact date on which the financial instruments from the U.S. Government and the Top Rated U.S. and World Insurance and Reinsurance Companies will return to them their share of the protection fund balance.” On the same website, Peterson claimed that Merrill Lynch, a prominent brokerage firm and investment bank, would hold all future investments in an “escrow account” and that Merrill Lynch would “purchase and hold all of the financial instruments that will furnish the funds to pre-purchase all stock shares at the original purchase price.” Additionally on the USA Fund website, on the frequently asked questions(“FAQ”) page, it states:

Q: How do you assure the investor that they will not lose their investment?
A: Our protection works much the same as flood insurance or earthquake or tornado insurance. We buy from the U.S. Governments financial instruments that will provide the money to insure against loss.

Peterson made similar claims in emails and letters soliciting investors for prospective purchases of common stock. On August 18, 2011, Peterson told a prospective investor that Merrill Lynch would buy “guarantee instruments and then transfer the net proceeds to USA [Fund].” On July 9, 2012, Peterson told investors that the USA Fund had just begun “marketing of our 20 Year Preferred shares both on our own and in conjunction with Merrill,” when there was no marketing arrangement.

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30 F. Supp. 3d 1026, 2014 WL 2892539, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 87938, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/securities-exchange-commission-v-usa-real-estate-fund-1-inc-waed-2014.