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Billings, Montana (AP) 6-09
Three Crow tribal members and another man have been arrested in New Mexico on suspicion of securities fraud while seeking investments in purported mineral development on the Crow Reservation in southern Montana.
Ted Hogan, Grady Hunts Arrow and Loren Old Bear along with Brad Greenberg of North Carolina were arrested during late May at a hotel in Rio Rancho, N.M.
Teala Kail of the New Mexico Regulation and Licensing Department said the men were meeting with an undercover officer to complete what they thought was a $51 million transaction for minerals development when they were arrested.
The case will be presented to a grand jury for indictments, Kail said.
Hogan remained jailed on $1 million cash bail at the Sandoval County jail in Bernalillo, N.M. He appeared during late May before a magistrate judge on a criminal complaint charging him with 23 counts including racketeering, fraud, forgery, conspiracy, securities fraud and sales of unregistered securities.
The state Regulation and Licensing Department investigation revealed that a Rio Rancho woman had invested $50,000 with Hogan.
“Hogan has hurt investors throughout the country,” Superintendent Kelly O’Donnell said. “This current scheme is only the latest in a complex and interwoven series of investment frauds Hogan has been perpetrating for more than seven years, all involving purported mineral development in Montana on the Crow Reservation.”
At one time, Hogan was the Crow Tribe’s exclusive agent for securing funding for energy development, but the tribe terminated the agreement after his solicitations prompted complaints to federal officials.
Hunts Arrow and Old Bear, who each posted $50,000 bonds, also face numerous charges including conspiracy, securities fraud, sale of unregistered securities and forgery. Greenberg, who was released without bond, faces 16 similar counts.
Last year, the Virginia State Corporation Commission ruled that Hogan violated the state’s securities laws and ordered him and his company, Theodore J. Hogan and Associates, to pay civil penalties and investigating costs totaling $95,000.
Hogan, 64, denied the charges but did not appear for a hearing. He also faces lawsuits filed by investors in Virginia. The commission said Hogan had acknowledged receiving about $4.1 million from investors.
New Mexico’s investigation of Hogan began late last year after Virginia authorities contacted the state about him.
Hogan was found guilty in a tribal corruption scandal in the 1990s when he was director of the Crow Housing Authority.
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