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Fraudster Gilbertson Dakota Plains on
Scienter Reger Found Liable 57% Co
Reckless
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
June 14 – Bankrupt oil
company Dakota Plains Holdings
is seeking to decertify a
class of investors suing for
fraud after Dakota's Ryan
Gilbertson was convicted of
stock manipulation.
On
December 21, 2020 in the U.S.
District Court for the
Southern District of New York
there was a proceeding. Inner
City Press covered it, and
live tweeted some of it,
below.
On June 14, the
jury reached its verdicts:
Reger liable, 57% (but not
liable on insider trading);
the company, reckless. Full
verdict form on Patreon here.
From December 21,
2020: First up is Michael
Rowe, saying there were other
reasons for Dakota Plains'
collapse, including a train
crash near Montreal.
Now argument
turns to "Daubert" - that is,
experts. Oral argument bingo:
scienter.
Now Mr. [Karl
Jon] Breyer: Both Reger and
Gilbertson both denied they
owned more than 5% of the
companies stock...
The
officers and director did the
best as they could, they found
nothing they had to disclose
to the public, they don't have
to disclose suspicions
Plaintiffs'
counsel: Our exhibit 119 is
what the officers and
directors privately disclosed
to the SEC about what they
said was securities fraud by
Gilbertson... That should be
sufficient to defeat this
motion.
On August 4,
Judge Jed S. Rakoff held a
proceeding, after reading a
jury his legal instructions in
US v. Sidney Scales. For this
case, a trial date had to be
selected.
One of the
lawyers said two weeks in
December were not possible.
Judge Rakoff asked, Why not?
The lawyer said, a vacation in
Hawaii.
Judge
Rakoff joked, then the trial
would have to be moved to
Hawaii in December.
On January 14, 2022
Judge Rakoff held a conference
with the parties to discuss
the upcoming trial. Counsel
for the Officer and Director
Defendants posed a lot of
questions about how COVID
could impact the trial, and
asked if additional jurors
will be sat.
And on June 6, it
began. As he usually does,
Judge Rakoff very quickly
selected the jury. Then there
was testimony about how
promising Dakota Plains'
business seemed, moving oil
from the Dakotas by train to
Philadelphia and elsewhere,
how Jena Smith talked it up.
Meanwhile, Inner
City Press obtained documents
labeled confidential from a
previous case, on Patreon here.
On June 7, Mike
Reger was on the stand, being
grilled on cross examination
about articles and his emails
about press releases, before
the market opened. His own
counsel barely objected and
the word "potted plant" was
heard.
Plaintiff attorney Steven
Molo questioning defendant Michael Reger,
courtesy of Elizabeth Williams
On June 8, the
CEO of Dakota Plains who said
he was displaced when Reger
brought forward Craig McKenzie
as the new CEO testified, how
shareholder complaints were a
distraction to the expansion
in North Dakota he was then
working on.
Here are more
documents on Patreon, this
time the Nevada deposition of
McKinzie, here.
On June 9, a
stock analyst was on the stand
testifying that Reger's stock
sales drove Dakota Plains'
valuation down. (The witness
rather clumsily kept turning
to the jurors and slowing down
his speech).
Meanwhile, here
is McKenzei's memo doling out
$100,000 and more by unanimous
written consent, referring to
Dakota Plains' negotiations
with Suntrust (now Truist), on
Patreon here.
We'll have more
on this.
The case is Jon
D. Gruber v. Ryan R.
Gilbertson, et al., 16-cv-9727
(Rakoff)
***
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