The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed suit against a Texas man the agency said collected $1.2 million from investors for a hemp business and then spent more than $755,000 on gambling, luxury items and rent on a swanky personal residence.
Robert Tye Cournoyer, 56, formerly of Dallas, Southlake and Arlington may be forced to repay investors and pay thousands of dollars in civil penalties under a complaint filed by the SEC this month.
The agency said Cournoyer used two companies he controlled – Green Equity and RS Group – to entice investment in a bottling plant and the production of hemp, CBD and hand sanitizer.
However, Cournoyer used more than half the money he collected from investors for personal expenses. The SEC said Cournoyer often spent the money immediately after the funds hit his bank accounts.
“In many instances, cash withdrawals, gambling, residential lease payments, and luxury purchases happened in very close proximity to (and sometimes on the same day as) investor deposits,” according to the lawsuit, which claims Cournoyer “was gambling full time starting in 2019 or 2020.”
“On multiple occasions, investor funds were deposited into bank accounts with a near-zero balance and then spent, in the same month . . . . For example, on June 1, 2019, a Green Equity bank account had a balance of $501.37. The bank account received at least $90,000 in investor deposits that month, which Cournoyer spent, for example, at the Mirage and the Bellagio in Las Vegas, Panerai luxury boutique in Las Vegas, Hugo Boss in Dallas, and for his personal residence’s lease payment and personal credit card payments.”
Thirty days later, on June 30, 2019, the Green Equity account had an ending balance of $8,955.12, according to the SEC lawsuit.
Cournoyer also told investors that Colorado-based Green Equity was operating when it had been defunct since 2019, and used the company’s marketing materials to make false and misleading statements, including that he graduated from the University of Florida law school when he had not, and exaggerating his business experience, according to the SEC.
He also failed to inform investors that he was sanctioned after the SEC previously charged him with fraud, according to the lawsuit, filed May 10 in U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado.
Cournoyer formed Green Equity in November 2017 and soon after partnered with an unnamed Colorado-based hemp business which agreed to find hemp-related opportunities for Green Equity.
Read more at Hemp Today