A Texas man who told investors that he had invented a new system to discover oil reserves by use of sound waves today was charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission with defrauding investors, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
The complaint, filed in federal court in Dallas, claims Paul Gilman and his start-up, Oil Migration Group, solicited investments by promising substantial profits.
The SEC says Gilman instead used the money to finance a lavish lifestyle, including luxury hotels in Las Vegas, and large cash withdrawals at casino ATMs.
The SEC says it is seeing permanent injunctions, return of allegedly ill-gotten gains plus interest and civil penalties.
“We allege that Gilman and his companies created the false impression that he was using investor funds to transform industries with his purported revolutionary sound technology,” said Shamoil T. Shipchandler, Director of the SEC’s Fort Worth Regional Office. “But if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”
Gilman referred to himself as the 'Whale Whisperer' who produced and starred in a documentary of his encounters with whales.The SEC says another of Gilman's companies, GilmanSound, was in fact a legitimate enterprise which provided sound systems to major league baseball stadiums, but the SEC says even the proceeds from that firm were 'misused for Gilman's personal expenses.'