KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Following an alleged Ponzi scheme, a company may be facing $4 million in civil penalties after defrauding Missouri investors.
On Thursday, Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft’s Securities Division issued an order to show cause why restitution, civil penalties and other administrative relief should not be imposed against the company and four individuals that allegedly offered and sold at least $760,000 in unregistered homemade “silver and gold certificates.”
According to court documents, April 2018 and August 2020, Robert Craig Bridgforth, through an entity he reportedly called Liberty Gold and Silver, allegedly offered and sold securities instruments to six investors in Missouri, including four elderly residents from Warrensburg, Independence and Oak Grove.
The certificates were said to be collateralized by gold or silver.
In connection with offering the investments, Bridgforth is alleged to have made material misstatements and omissions, and engaged in a Ponzi-like scheme that violated multiple sections of the Missouri Securities Act.
Also named, Ashley R. Wegener, Dustin Raysik and Bryan L. Cochran, all unregistered issuer agents, allegedly introduced the Missouri investors to Bridgforth and received commissions. Bridgforth purportedly drafted his own instruments that contained graphics and images that made false statements that the investments were secured by currency minted by the United States…
