LITIGATION RELEASE NO. 17988 / February 19, 2003
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION v. GARRY W. STROUD, INDIVIDUALLY AND D/B/A DIAMOND GLOBAL HOLDING TRUST, EURO CREDIT AND EXCHANGE BANK LTD., AND ANGELIC INTERNATIONAL, et al. (U.S.D.C. Western District of Oklahoma, Civil Action No. CIV-01-999-W)
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that on February 18, 2003, the Honorable Lee R. West, U.S. District Judge for the Western District of Oklahoma, entered a default judgment against Garry W. Stroud, ordering him to pay disgorgement and prejudgment interest in the amount of $1,044,879, a $956,379 civil penalty and enjoining him from further violations of the federal securities laws. Previously, Judge West issued emergency orders, including a temporary restraining order, preliminary injunction, assetfreeze and the appointment of a temporary receiver against Stroud, who operated his scheme from British Columbia, Canada.
On June 28, 2001, the Commission filed suit against Stroud in federal district court in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The Commission's complaint charged Stroud with conducting an ongoing Internet investment scheme that fleeced over 2,200 investors worldwide of approximately $1 million since 1998. According to the Commission's complaint, Stroud, operating under several fictitious businesses, used Internet websites and e-mail to hawk seven spurious investments, including so-called "Morgenthau Gold Bond Certificates," foreign gold-mining projects, and "prime-bank" trading programs, promising investors extraordinary returns with little or no risk. The complaint further alleged that these investments were, in every case, pure shams and that Stroud had not paid a single investor the promised returns. Stroud was assisted in the scheme, according to the complaint, by Adele Louros, whom it named as a relief defendant. Moreover, according to the complaint, Stroud targeted his fraudulent investment offerings mainly to investors who were recently defrauded in another investment scheme. That scheme, known as E-Biz Ventures, was the subject of a Commission enforcement action in January 2001 involving over 20,000 investors and over $9 million. SEC v. E-Biz Ventures, et. al, Lit. Rel. 16886, February 1, 2001. The Court previously entered judgment by default against Louros on July 30, 2002.
The court also ordered Stroud to provide a post-judgment accounting of all investor funds he obtained, to repatriate all assets outside the jurisdiction of the Court and further issued a permanent injunction against future violations of Sections 5(a), 5(c) and 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and Rule 10b?5 thereunder.