Oil and Gas Ponzi Scam Promising 227% Returns Draws SEC Suit

Two men took $3.9 million from investors as part of an oil and gas investment fraud scheme, the SEC said July 17.

William J. Milles Jr. and Donald J. Lutzko promised investors returns ranging from 227% to 336% for investments in several oil projects, but some of the purported wells didn’t even exist, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas.

The pair spent around $817,000 on Ponzi payments to earlier investors, $41,000 on Milles’s old energy company, $50,000 on Milles’s credit card bills and rent, and $83,000 ...