An El Paso County judge has sentenced a man to 10 years in prison for an oil and gas securities scheme that defrauded investors of more than $750,000, the Colorado Attorney General’s Office said Thursday.
Robert Allen Zickefoose, 50, pleaded guilty in July 2014 following a July 2013 indictment by the office.
Zickefoose failed to appear for a hearing last month before the subsequent sentencing.
“Thanks to the watchful eye of Colorado’s Division of Securities, our prosecutors were able to prove that Zickefoose was swindling people,” Colorado Attorney General John Suthers said in a statement. “While every investment carries some risk, given Colorado’s oil and gas development boom, investors need to do their homework and ensure they are dealing with a licensed securities broker.”
Zickefoose ran a “boiler-room” type operation out of Colorado Springs from where he sold unregistered oil and gas securities in the Wattenberg field in Weld County to a number of victims, some of whom were elderly.
Jesse Paul: 303-954-1733, jpaul@denverpost.com or
