Skateboarding is known for its bad boys, but it was
more than an image with Hugh A. Jeffreys, chief executive of Costa
Mesa-based Earthboard Sports USA Inc., regulators said
Thursday.
The Securities and Exchange Commission sued Jeffreys and
two former securities brokers for fraud, alleging that the trio sold $5.1
million in unregistered stock to 66 investors — including a couple that
considered Jeffreys their "adopted son."
Instead of using the
proceeds to make skateboards as they had promised investors, the money
went to Jeffreys and two securities salesmen, Timothy F. Bell of Leesburg,
Va., and Tracy A. Edwards of San Diego, the suit said.
Jeffreys,
who got the bulk of the cash, used it to buy a waterfront home in Newport
Beach and a house for his girlfriend, among other items, according to the
suit filed in U.S. District Court in Washington.
Jeffreys'
attorney, Richard Mamaro, declined to comment. Edwards did not return
calls and Bell could not be reached.
The suit said Jeffreys
recruited Bell and Edwards in 1998 to solicit investors for privately held
Earthboard. Using fabricated stories — including claiming that footwear
company Vans Inc. was about to buy Earthboard — they
raised $2.4 million in just three years.
When investors started
getting edgy about the ever-pending Vans merger, Jeffreys drafted a news
release claiming that the company had penned a partnership with Chrysler's
Jeep division — and, later, with Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
according to the SEC, which said both news releases were false.
The suit also said Bell and Edwards persuaded an elderly couple,
who considered Jeffreys their adopted son, to invest all their savings in
the company.