SEC Charges Family-Run Business Promising Investors Stake in Purported $11 Billion Gold Mine

The SEC charged Harry Dean Proudfoot III of Mt. Vernon, Ohio, and his children Matthew Dale Proudfoot and Laurie Anne Vrvilo with violations of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The Proudfoot's raised at least $2.7 million from approximately 140 investors in 23 states through their Portland, Oregon-based company 3 Eagles Research Development LLC (3 Eagles).

They told investors their company would extract gold worth more than $11 billion from gravel pits in central Ohio. However, 3 Eagles did not have rights to much of the property it claimed to be mining for gold, and the Proudfoot's instead diverted investor money for personal use.

The Proudfoot's sold investors "royalty units" or "membership interests" in the purported gold mining project, claiming their money would be used to purchase mining equipment and conduct mining operations at two gravel pits. They hired a securities broker named Dennis Ashley Bukantis of Denver, who is not registered with the SEC and assisted in the sale of fraudulent securities in exchange for nearly $165,000 in commissions. Bukantis is charged along with the Proudfoot's in the SEC's complaint.

View release in full here (links externally to SEC website).