Log In | Register
DENVER — The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a civil lawsuit accusing Colorado Springs-based Wellco Energy LLC and four employees of fraud.
A woman who answered the phone at Wellco Friday said she had no immediate comment. She refused to give her name.
The complaint, filed Thursday, says 29-year-old founder Justin William Rifkin and salesmen Patrick Looper, Richard Pacheco and Dustin White raised more than $1 million in the last year by selling investors fractional interests in oil and gas wells.
Wellco's Web site describes the company as an independent oil and gas producer, but the SEC alleges that Wellco's main business is selling fractional interests in oil and gas development wells. The lawsuit says Wellco does not manage the development of wells.
The SEC alleges the defendants sold unregistered securities and weren't associated with a registered broker-dealer. Regulators also allege that they didn't disclose that about 58 percent of investors' funds were being used to pay sales commissions, expenses and Rifkin's mortgage, child support and other expenses.
Phone numbers for Rifkin, Looper, 71, and Pacheco, 45, were not listed. White, 32, did not immediately return a phone message left at his home Friday.
