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News Jury awards $7.3M in ponzi
suit
Eustace couple faces judgement in fraudulent
oil and gas scheme
By Pearl Cantrell
Monitor Staff Writer
KAUFMAN–A jury awarded $7.3 million to a group of 22 oil and gas
venture capitalists, who feared their money might be
unrecoverable. The total award results in recouping their
original investment back times six.
The verdict turned against Henderson County residents Cameron
Cravey and his wife, Kimberly. According to TaxNetUSA, Kimberly
owns a residence on CR 2858 with a Eustace mailing address
valued at $653,160.
Kimberly was charged with exemplary damages, totaling $1.1
million. Her husband was assessed $2.2 million in exemplary
damages. The amount invested in Cravey’s companies by the
investors totals $836,660.90, according to court documents.
The jury is permitted to consider the difference between what
the investment was represented to be (a rapid payback with
increasing oil prices), and what they actually got, Little
explained. It also includes attorney fees and court costs of
$200,000 to total the additional $3.264 million award.
The jury in Judge Howard Tygrett’s 86th District Court found
that Cameron Cravey, with his wife’s knowledge, had committed
theft and fraud, misappropriated funds and intentionally
breached his fiduciary duty. In addition, 10 of the 12-member
jury also found that the defendants violated the Texas
Securities Act in a number of areas and fraudulently transferred
assets to a special trust fund in their children’s names.
The trial, the third in a series of litigation started back in
2007, began Jan. 9 and the jury brought back a 70-page verdict
Wednesday in Kaufman.
None of the investors were from Henderson, Van Zandt or Kaufman
counties.
After a full day of deliberations and reviewing the contents of
some 1,500 pages of documents, the jury also found that a
third-party defendant, Matthew Boultinghouse Sr., a Dallas
resident and a salesman for Cameron Cravey was not responsible
for any damages awarded to the plaintiffs.
“I’m confident that the jury reviewed the evidence and paid
attention to details. I also feel justice was served in this
case,” Plaintiffs’ attorney Mitch Little told The Monitor.
Considered “unusual” by Little, neither the defendant’s
attorney, Charles Settle, of Arlington nor his clients were
present for the verdict.
Boultinghouse Sr., testified that he started making a minimum of
400 sales calls a day for C. Cravey to secure investors in
developing a 600-acre oil field near Wichita Falls in 2004. He
described it as a telemarketing effort, after which a brochure
went out followed by a Q&A session with C. Cravey and a check
sent.
Then in 2005, Boultinghouse went up to the drill site and worked
as a roustabout, leaving only after assuring himself that the
oil well was now in operation. A short time later, he said C.
Cravey reported during a sales meeting that the well had locked
up. That’s when questions of legitimacy started forming in
Boultinghouse’s mind. “Things didn’t seem to jive,” he said.
Boultinghouse quit the end of 2006, he said.
C. Cravey claimed that Boultinghouse Sr. had a working interest
in the project and had sold parts of this to the investors.
Boultinghouse represented himself at trial and assured the jury
that none of the 1,500 pages of documents supported that claim
because it just wasn’t true.
In 2010, the investors, represented by Mitchell Little won a
favorable ruling from Judge Tygrett to recoup their original
investment and damages, at which point C. Cravey moved for a
jury trial and the judge’s ruling was set aside on a
technicality.
A new trial was set and jury heard testimony and then in the
11th hour, C. Cravey filed for personal bankruptcy, and once
again the investors were put off.
Eventually, the bankruptcy court in Fort Worth threw the case
out, and the investors were still left holding the bag.
In the interim, a company from Utah bought the oil field for
$6.4 million and funds were wired to the Wells Fargo branch in
Kaufman and electronically withdrawn the same day.
Boultinghouse said he spoke with the bank branch manager and
confirmed the movement of funds and the appearance of C. Cravey
and another associate attempting to open another account.
“The branch manager said she told the men to leave and never
come back,” Boultinghouse told The Monitor.
Little immediately filed for a new court date, which resulted in
what is likely the second largest jury award in the history of
Kaufman County.
The largest award was for $296 million handed down Oct. 21, 1999
in the case of a faulty pipeline explosion that resulted the
deaths of two children. The plaintiffs in that case later
settled for an undisclosed amount.
In closing remarks to the jury, Little reminded the jury of
Beverly Wanke, a 70-year-old retired school bus driver from
Crosby, who invested her life’s savings and is unable to pay for
her husband’s costly medical care.
“The Craveys are evil,” Little said.
The case now goes to judgment and a final determination on the
money and how it is to be paid, Judge Tygrett said.
Local doc captains medical team at U.S.
Olympic marathon trials
By Pearl Cantrell
Monitor Staff Writer
MABANK-Local doctor Paul Guttuso was part of a large medical
team, much like a M.A.S.H. unit, to serve the medical needs of
an anticipated 250 to 300 of the 26,000 runners in the Chevron
Houston Marathon Jan. 15. It’s something he’s been doing for the
past seven years. More importantly, he was one of about a dozen
physicians overseeing the needs of the nation’s most elite
athletes as they competed for a place on the U.S. Olympic
Marathon Team, a day before the 40th annual Houston Marathon.
Guttuso operates Lakeside Family and Sports Medicine at 604
South 3rd Street in Mabank.
The weekend event broke course records both for the Olympic
Trials and the popular Houston Marathon.
Guttuso captained a team of 22-25 doctors covering the start and
finish line area for the premiere event that holds three races,
the 26-mile marathon, 13-mile half marathon and 5K. He led a
team of about a dozen doctors on hand for the Olympic Trials,
the first time it has ever been held in Houston.
He’s been a key player (medically speaking) for the Houston
Marathon, under the medical direction of Dr. John Cianca. Around
60 doctors and support staff have made it their goal to provide
the highest level of medical care and quickest response time at
the event. An estimated 250 to 300 race participants depend on
that care every year. And each year, improvements have been made
to ensure runner safety.
Guttuso feels this practice and the growing reputation of the
medical team was a prime consideration in Houston winning the
bid for the Olympic trials. About 300 of America’s most elite
amateur runners vied for one of three places on the U.S. men’s
and women’s Olympic Marathon teams. The winners were for the
women’s team in order of finish: Shalane Flanagan with a time of
2:25:38 in only her second marathon; Desiree Davila, finishing
18 seconds later (2:25:55) and Kara Groucher, placing third at
2:26:06. Groucher was off the circuit in 2010 due to maternity
leave and competed in the 2011 Boston Marathon nine months ago
finishing in 2:24:26.
Meb Keflezighi won first, beating out beating defending Olympic
Trial record holder Ryan Hall with a finish time of 2:09:08.
Hall finished in 2:09:30 and Abdi Abdirahman of Tucson, Ariz.
followed 17 seconds behind him.
At nearly 37, Keflezighi is the oldest man to win an Olympic
Trial, while breaking the trial record and his own personal
best, set just 69 days ago at the ING New York City Marathon.
During the Olympic trials, a core group of about a dozen doctors
served the Olympic hopefuls and again Guttuso was there at the
start-finish line, ready to respond if needed.
Since relocating to Mabank, Guttuso has filled a similar role
during football season on the field whenever the Mabank Panthers
played locally.
The medical response teams are organized in such a way that eyes
are on nearly every yard of the 26-mile race. Coverage is
maintained through 13 aide stations, roving bicycle teams on
specific routes, and strategically located ambulances along the
race route and scissors lifts in the finish-start area.
A temporary hospital, set up at the George R. Brown Convention
Center, is laid out with beds for both minor and major injuries
and is staffed with doctors knowledgeable in exertion maladies.
An Intensive Care Unit is fully equipped, including ice baths to
treat exertion hyperthermia, a condition when the body’s
temperature rises above 105 degrees and the brain shuts down,
Guttuso explained. “This condition is seldom seen at a civilian
ER. It is a condition more familiar to military and race
doctors,” Guttuso added.
Though none of the Olympic hopefuls needed to resort to the icy
bath, two runners in the last three years were submerged to
reduce their hyperthermia quickly, which is key to gaining the
best recovery, Guttuso said.
Last year, a woman who dropped dead 50 feet from the finish line
and was successfully resuscitated was able to come back this
year and able to complete the half marathon, thanks in part to
the rapidity in medical response time, and the grace of God, he
said.
As a result of that episode, Guttuso and Cianca identified a
hole in their coverage of the area from two blocks (or 300
yards) from the finish line to quarter mile, where the edge of
the last roving bicycle team’s patrol area. They called it The
Corner and adjusted their coverage to include this area this
year.
And it’s a good thing they did, because the same thing happened
this year. A male runner dropped dead, about 300 yards after
crossing the finish line.
“One of the medical team members saw him collapse and the
response time was 42 seconds. He was resuscitated and
transferred off the course alive,” Guttuso said with
satisfaction.
“Our goal has always been to become the best exertion medical
response team in the world. Maybe, we are, but there’s always
room for improvement.”
Driver uses gun to threaten woman motorist
By Barbara Gartman and Erik Walsh
Monitor Staff Writers
SEVEN POINTS–A woman driving in Gun Barrel City, Wednesday, on
State Highway 334, near State Highway 198, was surprised by a
man with a gun.
She had stopped for a red light when the suspect, Gary Bogner of
Mabank, stepped out of his vehicle and knocked on her window
with a pistol in hand.
As she took off in her car toward Seven Points, she dialed
9-1-1.
The suspect followed her and she continued on and pulled into
the Seven Points Police Station parking lot.
Seven Points Police Department Lt. Stewart Newby said as Bogner
pulled up, Seven Points officer Raymond Wiennerstrom made the
first contact with the suspect.
“He (Wiennerstrom) ordered Bogner to get out of his car and to
put his hands up,” Newby said.
As the crime was committed in Gun Barrel City, their officers
showed up and arrested the offender.
He was charged with possession of a firearm by a felon, Newby
said.
A motive has not yet been established, he added. |
