SEC Emergency Action Charges Texas Real Estate Developer for Multi-Million Dollar Offering Fraud

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced today that it filed charges against Texas resident and real estate developer Phillip Michael Carter, two other individuals, and several related entities for conducting a multi-million dollar offering fraud. The SEC's complaint alleges that Carter, along with Bobby Eugene Guess and Richard Tilford, raised almost $45 million from over 270 investors across the United States by selling short-term, high-yield promissory notes issued by a number of shell companies intentionally named to confuse investors. The complaint alleges that Carter, Guess, and Tilford claimed to offer investments in Carter's legitimate real estate development companies, which were purportedly backed by hard assets from actual real estate development projects.