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Thursday, March 12, 2009

Ind. Courts - Fraud Investigation by State Securities Office, and a Mis-step

Yesterday Secretary of State Todd Rokita's office sent out a press release announcing:

Investigators and attorneys from Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita’s Securities Division have successfully obtained a temporary restraining order against Dorothy Geisler-Tragardh, formerly a one-third partner in the clean coal energy company Praxis Resource Partners, LLC. Geisler-Tragardh is under investigation by Secretary Rokita’s office for possible securities fraud after her former business partners came forward with suspicions she pocketed funds she raised from investors for the company and used the money for personal benefits and expenses.

Carmel residents Chris and Jan Marten as well as the business J.S. Martin, Inc. are also named as defendants in the civil complaint filed today, along with other businesses associated with Geisler-Tragardh. * * *

The assets of Geisler-Tragardh and the Martens were immediately frozen by Judge Patrick McCarty as a result of a civil complaint made by the Indiana Securities Commissioner with the assistance of the Indiana Attorney General’s Office. The asset freeze will remain in place until a hearing set for March 18. * * *

A copy of the court’s order is attached to this e-mail.

The Order was indeed attached to the release. Appended to the Order, and clearly labeled Not for Public Access, Indiana Trial Rule 5(G), Adm. Rule 9(G), was a page containing the names and numbers of the accounts to be frozen.

Today, a "follow up on press release," that reads:

Yesterday, a press release was issued by this communications office that included an inadvertent release of the account numbers for two bank accounts involved in an asset freeze obtained by the Indiana Securities Division. We are calling this matter to the attention of the Court, the named parties, and the pertinent banks.

The information released involves numbers for bank accounts that are frozen by the order. We anticipate this information would be made public at a hearing on March 18th. The court order states this information is not to be made public in the interim. Any publication of this account information could result in a violation of the order. I’m attaching a version of the court’s order that is suitable for distribution.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on March 12, 2009 01:27 PM
Posted to Indiana Courts