SEC Gets Partial Victory in Oil Technology Securities Fraud Suit

The US Securities and Exchange Commission won a partial judgment against a lawyer and broker-dealer who made misrepresentations about “cold-cracking” oil technology, but its available remedies were time-barred.

Joseph Laura made made material misrepresentations about patents, revenue share agreements, and production dates, according to the ruling by the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York. But it wasn’t clear whether he made them knowingly, it said.

Laura and his company, Innovative Crude Technologies Inc., set up two corporations, both called Pristec America, with ownership split 50-50 by ICT and Pristec AG, an Austrian company that invested in ...