Company Cofounded by Paul Pelosi Jr charged with

Posted: Jul 18, 2014

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged a company cofounded by Paul Pelosi Jr. with fraud on Wednesday after learning that two convicted criminals were running the business. Paul Pelosi Jr., the son of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.), was the president and chief operating officer of Natural Blue Resources Inc., an investment company he cofounded that focuses on “environmentally-friendly” ventures. The SEC charged four individuals with fraud, including former New Mexico Gov. Toney Anaya, and suspended trading in the company’s stock. Pelosi owned over 10 million shares in the company in 2009. The SEC said Wednesday the company was “secretly controlled” by James E. Cohen and Joseph Corazzi, both of whom had previous fraud convictions. Corazzi violated federal securities laws and was barred from acting as an officer or director of a public company. Cohen was previously incarcerated for financial fraud. Cohen and Corazzi said they were “outside consultants,” but according to the SEC, they actually controlled Natural Blue’s business decisions “without disclosing their past brushes with the law to investors.” The pair made hundreds of thousands of dollars off the company. “Cohen and Corazzi concealed their involvement through a so-called ‘consulting’ agreement, but their influence over the issuer spread much further,” said Andrew J. Ceresney, director of the SEC’s Enforcement Division. “Investors in Natural Blue had a right to know who was running the company behind the scenes.” The SEC suspended trading in Natural Blue stock. A notice filed in the Federal Register on Wednesday by Jill M. Peterson, assistant secretary of the SEC, revealed that the company has not filed any periodic reports, which are required by law, with the SEC in four years. “It appears to the Securities and Exchange Commission that there is a lack of current and accurate information concerning the securities of Natural Blue Resources, Inc. because it has not filed any periodic reports since the period ended September 30, 2010,” Peterson said, in the order announcing suspension of trading. Cohen, Corazzi, Anaya, and Erik Perry, a former executive at Natural Blue, were all charged with federal fraud violations. Anaya, who was Governor of New Mexico from 1983 to 1987, and Perry “misled investors by failing to disclose that Cohen and Corazzi were running the company in spite of their criminal or disciplinary histories,” the SEC said. “Natural Blue and its officers attempted an end-run around the rules designed to prevent recidivists from getting their hands on the controls of public companies,” said Paul Levenson, director of the SEC’s Boston Regional Office... ;