PROVO — State securities agents have charged a Provo man with 40 felonies for allegedly bilking at least 11 local investors out of more than $100,000 through phony securities deals.
Patrick Doyle, 31, was charged Monday in 4th District Court with 11 counts of securities fraud, 11 counts of being an unlicensed broker, 11 counts of selling an unregistered security, six counts of money laundering and one count of racketeering.
Twelve of the charges are second-degree felonies, which are punishable by a possible prison term of one to 15 years. The remaining charges are third-degree felonies, which carry a possible prison term of up to five years.
According to court records, Doyle allegedly solicited so-called "no risk" investments in a variety of programs from August 1998 to December 1999 with a promise to investors that they would make returns of between 12 percent and 1,000 percent. Investors were also told the investments were insured by seven different companies, which securities investigators say was not true.
Doyle allegedly told investors their money was going into a variety of programs, mainly to be invested in an offshore bank note trading program. He also allegedly told some that their money would be used as collateral to purchase bonds, to invest in railroad bonds and to pool together to fund a project building youth homes.
"Patrick Doyle conducted a transaction or transactions knowing the property involved in the transaction represented the proceeds of some form of unlawful activity with the intent to conceal or disguise the nature, location, source, ownership, or control of property," the court affidavit says.
Investors were also told they would have control of their money and could withdraw from the program at any time, the affidavit says. However, most received no return on their investment. Some received a portion of their investment back, but those funds came from money contributed by other investors.
According to the affidavit, when one investor asked for his money back, he was told by Doyle "his investment was involved in an investigation concerning the Russian Mafia and the program had been shut down."
Investigators say Doyle never told investors that the securities were not registered as required by law and that he was not licensed to sell the securities. Doyle allegedly admitted to investigators that he used a portion of the money solicited from investors for personal living expenses.
Twice Doyle was warned in 1999 by an agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation not to sell unregistered securities and Doyle even signed one of those warnings. Investigators say Doyle continued soliciting investments even after signing the second warning.
Doyle is currently free on bail and has a court appearance scheduled for May 1.
You can reach Jim Rayburn by e-mail at jimr@desnews.com