Fake Eco-Friendly Bottling Company Draws SEC Suit, Asset Freeze

A Colorado man used his company to raise $3.2 million for a fake environmentally friendly bottling company and used some of the money for his mortgage, the SEC told a federal judge in the state.

Tra Jay Scarlett and Chatfield PCS Ltd. allegedly misled GO ECO Manufacturing Inc. investors about a nonexistent sports drink deal and claimed the investment would eventually generate annual returns of more than 20%, the Securities and Exchange Committee says in a newly unsealed complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado.

The agency secured an asset freeze and other emergency relief ...