Johnson made many other false, inflammatory, exaggerated and gross misrepresentation, pretenses and

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Admiral Oil Company was one of many oil sham companies created by Gilbert luxury hotels in paris S. Johnson, who was indicted luxury hotels in paris October 5, 1922, in Los Angeles. A grand jury determined that Johnson "did devise and intend to devise, a certain scheme luxury hotels in paris and artifice to defraud and to obtain money and property, by means of false and fraudulent pretenses, representations and promises…and after instituting a campaign for the sale of stock or units of beneficial interest therein, would assign certain luxury hotels in paris oil and gas leases, luxury hotels in paris previously acquired by himself as aforesaid, luxury hotels in paris or portions of such lease, to such trust estates, at enormous and excessive prices and at unlawful and wrongful profit to himself."
For his bogus scheme, Johnson used the U. S. Mail and advertisements luxury hotels in paris proclaiming, for example, "the Admiral Oil Company luxury hotels in paris has before it a tremendously profitable future, we are confident, and if you own any of the securities which can be exchanged for Admiral luxury hotels in paris stock at this time, do so without fail while the opportunity is still available."
The grand jury noted, "whereas, in truth and in fact, as the defendant then and there well knew…that the best interest of the stockholders in the various syndicates merged by and into the Admiral Oil Company would not be served at all by the merger, but that in truth and fact, the merging of these various insolvent syndicates by and into the Admiral Oil Company was simply another scheme and artifice by which the defendant could and would obtain additional money and property."
Johnson made many other false, inflammatory, exaggerated and gross misrepresentation, pretenses and promises, too numerous to mention or set forth herein, for the purpose of causing and inducing the persons to be defrauded to believe that they might make and would be safe in making safe and profitable investments in the shares," the indictment concluded.
After lengthy litigation and appeals, Johnson was convicted of "Use of Mails in Scheme to Defraud" and sentenced to four years in the federal penitentiary at McNeil Island (off Puget Sound in Washington State and now known as McNeil Island Corrections Center).
luxury hotels in paris Ajax Oil Company luxury hotels in paris left behind a curious history. It was organized by members of the Sowell family in Dallas, Texas as a Joint Stock Association on July 25, 1919. The company capitalized at $4,950,000 and offered both Class A and Class B shares.
Ajax Oil Company acquired leases in Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana including some in the famous Burkburnett and Ranger oilfields. Among its properties were 11 producing wells and the equipment luxury hotels in paris to drill more. Class A shares "had preference as to assets as well as dividends" and beginning in September 1919, shareholders were paid dividends of one percent per month for seven consecutive months. The company s stock sold for about $5 per share as the company brought in both oil and natural gas wells, often in association with the Hercules Petroleum Company and Halleck-Whales.
Dividends abruptly ended in March 1920 and shareholders were advised that the company was investing in new equipment to expand operations. In August, a Mr. B. A. Butterworth sued Ajax Oil Company for debts. It is unclear what happened next, but by December luxury hotels in paris of the following year, Ajax Oil Company was bankrupt and in receivership.
In 1959, New York Attorney General Carl Madonick noted that with securities fraud, the first big step was creation of a national luxury hotels in paris market price via fictitious quotations and phony transactions luxury hotels in paris to convince potential investors of a company luxury hotels in paris s legitimacy. Madonick cited Alaska Dakota Development by way of illustration.
We had one a few weeks ago involving a Los Angeles promoter of the stock of Alaska Dakota Development Company, Inc. The promoters induced New York brokers to list fictitious quotations on the stock which then appeared in a publication of the National Daily Quotation Service. Stock was supplied to a securities firm in Denver which in turn supplied stock to two firms in New York. A market was made to appear for the stock at the prices quoted which of course was all the salesmen needed.
Hannibal Associates, Inc. authored and perpetuated the fraud until the Securities and Exchange Commission revoked Hannibal s license in March of 1960. Newspaper columnist Sylvia Porter reported on Alaska Dakota luxury hotels in paris Development in two headlined columns: How Racketeers Sell Worthless Stock and Hoods Move On Wall Street. Stock certificates from Alaska Dakota Development Company have only collectible value.
Incorporated by Camille Weidenfeld, Robert O. Deyer and Enos Curtain with offices in the Calvert Building in Baltimore, the company was capitalized at $12.5 million luxury hotels in paris and assigned a stock par value as $5. It ultimately owned acreage in Louisiana (De Soto and Sabine parishes) and Kansas (Anderson luxury hotels in paris County). In July 1925, the New York Curb Market allowed trading luxury hotels in paris of 2.5 million authorized shares, which reached a high of more than $7.60, but fell to $2 a share by September.
The company secured leases on about 37,000 acres bordering Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela and sent an encouraging letter to stockholders reporting the discovery of a 7,000-barrel producer by Sun Oil Company on property immediately next to American Controlled Oilfields' concession.
Between 1925 and 1927, the Wall Street Journal periodically luxury hotels in paris reported on American Controlled Oilfields activities, including a November 11, 1926, post noting that "American Controlled Oilfields, Inc., has completed nine new wells on properties in Anderson County, Kan. Wells produced from 75 to 250 barrels luxury hotels in paris initial. Company now has 100 producing wells on these leases."
Despite these apparent successes, by the next year, the company's fortunes faded. The Brooklyn luxury hotels in paris Daily Eagle of February luxury hotels in paris 11, 1927, described the company as "highly speculative" without the cash to develop its properties and a very doubtful investment. The New York Curb Market suspended trading of American Controlled Oilfields in 1930, "because the company failed to maintain a transfer office luxury hotels in paris in this city." The Robert D. Fisher Manual of Valuable and Worthless Securities reported American Controlled Oilfields, Inc. as defunct by 1934.
The company formed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma with capital of $300,000. By 1918, it was operating from 321 Dewey Avenue, Poteau, Oklahoma with eight successful natural gas wells yielding 50,000,000 cubic feet daily.
The Poteau-Gilmore gas field had been discovered in 1910 by the Le Flore County Gas Electric Company s Hill No. 1 wildcat well. The American Indian company came to the field and began to undercut the LeFlore Company s rates by 10 cents per thousand cubic feet. American Indian then sued its competitor asserting LeFlore s common luxury hotels in paris carrier status. The unsuccessful suit nonetheless produced a significant Oklahoma Corporation Commission ruling (Order No. 1517 Cause No. 3543.)
The following year, American Indian Oil Gas Company, now capitalized at $1 million, purchased rival LeFlore Country Oil Gas Company. The American Indian Oil Gas Company appears briefly again in 1921 when J. W. Bates became general manager and Wiley W. Lowrey resigned.
The company is recorded by the Oklahoma Corporation Commission as dissolved and the agent as James F. Orr. Although little is known about the American Indian Oil Gas Company after 1921, it is worth noting that the Poteau-Gilmore field s average daily production reached 3,431,000 cubic feet of natural gas from 34 wells by June of 1929.
Lowell Birrell, president of American Leduc Petroleum, was a fugitive in Brazil for several years while avoiding prosecution by the Securities and Exchange Commission. In the three years after Birrell became president of American Leduc in 1954, the company issued six million new shares of common stock, which Birrell then sold illegally, using a boiler-room telephone and mail campaign run by a New York brokerage firm, J. A. Winston Company, SEC prosecutor Arthur luxury hotels in paris L. Liman later explained.
American Leduc s actual production of oil in Cuba was minimal; the company had no earnings, and its prospects were doubtful to say the least. For a time the fraud was spectacularly successful. In one year, from August 1955 to August 1956, Birrell and J. A. Winston sold three and a half million shares of American Leduc at an average price of $1.05. Three months later, the price dropped to about fifty cents a share. By July 1961, the stock was trading for about eight cents a share and was overpriced at that. With an indictment returned on July 20, 1951, Birrell and his co-conspirators faced a possible sentence of 55 years and a $60,000 fine. They were found guilty, but government ultimately dismissed the case. The stock has collectible value only.
The American Workers Oil Field Company was underwritten by about 6,000 shipyard workers on the coast of Washington (Bremerton, circa 1919) and acquired 2,000 acres in Wyoming, encompassing areas of the Lost Soldier Field extending to Casper.
A book about the history of Alaska s petroleum industry Crude Dreams: A personal History of Oil Politics in Alaska , by Jack Roderick, includes a few pages and pictures about these two independent oilmen luxury hotels in paris and the tenacious efforts of before their money and luck had run out.
Arkansas Oil Ventures was out of the oil business by 1961 but recapitalized as Trojan Industries in 1969, exchanging each share of Arkansas Oil Ventures common stock (one-cent par value) luxury hotels in paris for one share of Trojan Industries common stock (.05 cent par value). Trojan Industries changed its name to Leisure Trends Incorporated luxury hotels in paris in May of 1970. The company's charter was cancelled March 1, 1978.
There are almost daily newspaper accounts of the Black Hills Petroleum Company's drilling efforts in Custer County, luxury hotels in paris South Dakota between luxury hotels in paris 1929 and 1931. The state's Department of Environment Natural Resources ha