A Safety Technologies executive was indicted by the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) and ordered to pay $1.8 million in penalties and disgorgement to settle claims that he scammed investors – including women he met while online dating – by promising substantial returns on surgical glove technology.
SEC Settles with Thomas Connerton, Safety Technologies Executive
The SEC settled with Safety Technologies Executive Thomas Connerton and his company, Safety Technologies LLC. The settlement will end claims that Connerton persuaded investors to fork over $2.3 million by touting Safety Technologies’ purported technology. The Safety Technologies executive instead was spending the majority of investors’ money on his fiancée and himself.
The settlement requires Connerton to repay $1.7 million in disgorgement and a further $160,000 in civil penalties. The deal comes only a few weeks after Connerton and his fiancée, Jean Erickson, were criminally indicted for their activities in the same matter.
According to the complaint, the company was founded in 2006 to develop the ideas of a chemical engineer to create a puncture and cut-resistant surgical glove. He told investors that his product was both low-cost and revolutionary, claiming that his company was on the verge of signing several large-scale deals that would net the company as much as $1.7 billion over the next 10 years. He also claimed that he turned down an offer of $30 million for his company, which Connerton said was worth as much as $200 million.
Just over half of the money he raised came from women he met via online dating and their families or friends. Connerton circulated a fake private placement memorandum along with what he claimed was a law firm opinion letter concerning a patent application that stated the surgical glove technology was “novel and useful.”
SEC Claims Against Safety Technologies
The SEC stated that Connerton’s company Safety Technologies did not keep financial records other than tax returns, and investors were not allowed to keep a copy of the private placement memorandum. Further, Connerton spent only 7 percent of the money he had raised since 2009 on research and development. None of the money raised in 2016 was used for research and development for the company.
Have You Been a Victim of Securities Fraud?
Scammers like Thomas Connerton and his company are constantly coming up with new ways to defraud potential investors – including using online dating as a platform form which to raise investor money – to fleece unwitting investors.
Call a Securities Fraud Attorney Today
Contact an attorney today to schedule an appointment or consultation to review your rights and options. With offices in Los Angeles the attorneys at DKR have helped stockbroker fraud victims throughout Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, and Hollywood and recovered over $100 million from banks and brokerages firms for their wrongful actions.