The Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday filed an emergency action and obtained a temporary restraining order and an asset freeze on an alleged Ponzi scheme operated by a Shakopee, Minnesota couple and Bullard Enterprises, an entity they control.
According to the complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, from at least 2007 to 2021, Jason Dodd Bullard and Angela Romero-Bullard raised about $17.6 million from as many as 200 people, including many retirees, to invest in Bullard Enterprises' purported Flagship and Platinum Funds.
From 2000 to 2004, Bullard, 57, was associated with a broker-dealer and had series 6 and 63 securities licenses, according to the SEC. In 2010, he started the process to register with the National Futures Association as an "Associated Forex Person" but did not complete the process, the SEC said. Romero-Bullard, 49, "has no known securities licenses," according to the SEC.
The defendants did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.
The SEC also named four entities controlled by the defendants that received investor funds from the alleged scheme as relief defendants in the complaint.
Those relief defendants, all operating out of the defendants' current or former home addresses, are: DLJ Real Estate, Empire Investments, TI 13, and Empire Racing Stables, an operation with 24 horses offered to investors so they can "own a race horse today," according to its website.
Bullard and Romero-Bullard allegedly told investors their investments would be used to trade foreign currencies, and sent investors account statements showing their accounts were increasing in value.
