Houston Oil Exec Defrauds Investors
A Houston energy exec has been charged in an elaborate scheme to defraud 21 investors out of $1.2 million in oil and gas transactions, according to U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Patrick.
A federal grand jury returned a 12-count indictment against Arael Doolittle, 55 who heads Sariel Petroleum LLC and Sariel Enterprises LLC. According to Law 360, Doolittle operated a company that used bogus letters, phony addresses and a bank account under the name of a Chevron-affiliated company in order to dupe companies into doing business with it.
“Doolittle falsely represented he had the necessary pre-existing relationships with major refiners and petroleum product suppliers to purchase fuels for resale to his customers,” the U.S. Attorney’s release stated.
The indictment also alleges that Doolittle provided falsified documents to investors to substantiate and legitimize his holdings.
The energy exec was slapped with eight counts of wire fraud and four counts of engaging in monetary transactions in criminally derived funds. If convicted of wire fraud, Doolittle faces a potential 20-year-maximum sentence and a possible $250,000 maximum fine.
As a pivotal part of the elaborate scheme, Doolittle allegedly convinced Dominion Resources Trading (DRT), a small Las Vegas company to collaborate with him, seeking investors for oil and gas transactions, according to Houston Business and Energy Blog’s Andrew Jowett. DRT forwarded $1.25 million from 21 investors to Sariel Petroleum. Doolittle then allegedly presented falsified records to DRT showing his company had used $1,209,600 of the transferred funds to buy product from Citgo.
In 2018, Chevron sued Sariel Petroleum for trademark infringement in a separate case in the Southern District of Texas. A jury trial awarded Chevron $15.6 million in a judgment against Sariel in April 2020.
Source: Chron
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Published: 01-11-2020
