Ed Peters: Do Leopards Ever Change Their Spots?
NASA (National Account Systems Association) was an investment scheme cooked up by Mr. Peters and Charles Steen which fraudulently sold promissory notes to investors (the notes were accounts receivables sold at a discount), promising to pay a rate of return at 12% interest (The market rate then was 6%). Charles Steen was earlier convicted in Alabama of operating a similar bogus investment scheme and served a three-year prison sentence. NASA was shut down by then-Mississippi Secretary of State Heber Ladner in 1974 for violating state securities laws after the scheme took in $340,000 from Mississippi investors. ( See “Peters Liable for NASA Fraud” by Bill Minor, Capitol Reporter, December 7, 1978)
The victims sued Mr. Peters and three other defendants in federal court to recover for alleged violations of federal and state securities law. The Court ruled Mr. Peters “was a controlling person of the issuer and is jointly liable for all violations of the Securities Act and the Exchange Act”. The scheme involved the selling of accounts receivables purchased at a discount(with the money from the promissory notes) to investors. Unfortunately for the investors, the receivables originated from STARCO, a bogus paper company. Mr. Peters was also the attorney for STARCO (Conflict of interest?).
Jackson Jambalaya
2/5/8
Magnolia Tribune
