Energy Executives Lose Bid to Toss SEC Win, Disgorgement Order

Three energy executives must pay around $3 million in disgorgement and interest after the Fifth Circuit Tuesday determined the payment will benefit victims of the stock scheme as required under a 2020 U.S. Supreme Court opinion.

The lower court was right to grant summary judgment in favor of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and its order mandating disbursements to the scheme’s already-identified victims “easily satisfies” the narrowed disgorgement requirements set out in the Supreme Court’s Liu v. SEC decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit said.

Treaty Energy Corp. founder Ronald L. Blackburn, CEO and ...