Petro America - Kansas Corporation

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Second Petro America figure gets lengthy prison term

A second Petro America Corp. defendant was sentenced Wednesday to lengthy jail time.

Johnny Heurung, a Minnesota resident who talked weekly about Petro America during conference calls with investors, was sentenced to 18 years in federal prison, U.S. prosecutors said. At a trial this spring, prosecutors had called Heurung the pitch man for the scheme.

Heurung had been convicted on one count each of wire fraud and conspiracy. The government had asked for a 20-year sentence. Heurung also was ordered to pay more than $10 million in restitution.

That’s the amount that federal prosecutors said 12,000 investors lost in the Petro America stock scheme. Shares of the Kansas City-based company frequently were pitched through religious themes or by local ministers, often to unsophisticated investors with little money to invest.

Petro’s pitch included the claim that its assets totaled $284 billion from gold mines, oil fields and other holdings.

Participants in the scheme sold stock even after Missouri regulators ordered a halt to the sales. Many shares also were given away to ministers and others to sell. None of the Petro stock sellers were registered to offer securities, nor were the securities registered as investments.

On Tuesday, Petro America founder Isreal Owen Hawkins Jr. was sentenced to 30 years in prison for six felony convictions tied to the scheme.

Hawkins and Heurung were convicted by a federal jury along with three others. Nine other Petro America defendants pleaded guilty to various charges before the trial.

http://www.kansascity.com/2013/10/09/4542330/second-petro-america-figure-gets.html#storylink=cpy