Litigation Release No. 18399 / October 8 , 2003
SEC v. Premier Marketing and Investments and Nicholas Roblee a/k/a Nicholas Richmond, Civil Action No. 03-342 RGK (JTLx) (C.D. Cal.).
The Securities and Exchange Commission ("Commission") announced today that, on September 24, 2003, the Honorable R. Gary Klausner of the United States District Court for the Central District of California granted the Commission's motion for entry of default judgment and entered a Final Judgment Of Permanent Injunction And Other Relief Against Premier Marketing and Investments, Inc. ("Final Judgment"). Premier is enjoined from violating the registration and antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws, specifically Sections 5(a), 5(c) and 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder. Under the terms of the Final Judgment, Premier is also required to pay disgorgement in the amount of $4,497,451, plus prejudgment interest.
In January 2003, the Commission charged Los Angeles-based Premier and its president, Nicholas Roblee, a/k/a Nicholas Richmond, 34, of Encino, California, with fraudulently raising at least $4.5 million from dozens of investors nationwide, purportedly for the purpose of investing in a variety of "high-yield" investment programs. The defendants represented that investors could earn returns of up to 200% per month through various programs, including high-yield promissory notes, bridge loans and the purchase and sale of precious metals. In fact, Richmond and Premier operated a "prime-bank" scheme and misappropriated investor funds between November 2000 and January 2003. On January 15, 2003, the Court granted the Commission's request for a temporary restraining order against Richmond and Premier, which, among other things, imposed a freeze on defendants' assets and halted the ongoing fraud.
In April 2003, Richmond was indicted in a criminal proceeding before the United States District Court for the Central District of California, arising out of the same facts as the Commission's case. He is currently in custody and awaiting trial, which is currently set for January 13, 2004. United States v. Nicholas Roblee, Case No. 03cr00322 (C.D. Cal.).
Additional information on how prime bank and other banking-related investment schemes work can be found at the SEC's Prime Bank Fraud Information Center (http://www.sec.gov/divisions/enforce/primebank.shtml) in the enforcement section of the SEC's Web site.