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Pelosi’s Son Co-Founded Firm Charged With Securities Fraud

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s son, Paul Pelosi Jr.

Friday, 18 July 2014 07:46 AM

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An investment company co-founded by the son of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has been charged with securities fraud, The Washington Free Beacon reported.

Paul Pelosi Jr. was president and chief operating officer of Natural Blue Resources, which specializes in environmentally-friendly ventures, and in 2009 he was listed as owning 10 million shares in the company, according to the Free Beacon.

Four executives with the company, including former New Mexico Gov. Toney Anaya, have been charged with fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which suspended trading in the company’s stock.

The charges were handed down after the SEC learned that the company was “secretly controlled” by Joseph Corazzi and James Cohen, who had previous fraud convictions, according to the Free Beacon.

Corazzi violated federal securities laws and was barred from acting as an officer of a public company while Cohen had been jailed for financial fraud.

The pair, who earned hundreds of thousands of dollars from the company, called themselves “outside consultants,” but the SEC said that they ran the business without informing investors of their criminal history, the Free Beacon said.

Cohen, Corazzi, Anaya, and Erik Perry, a former executive at Natural Blue, were all charged with federal fraud violations.

Anaya, the chairman and CEO, who was New Mexico governor from 1983 to 1987, and Perry misled investors by failing to disclose that Cohen and Corazzi were controlling the company despite their criminal past, the SEC said.

Pelosi, who co-founded the company in 2009, reportedly served as president and COO of Natural Blue until January 2010. Although Joseph Montalto is now listed as the president, the Mountain View Telegraph named Pelosi as president last year, the Free Beacon said.

The SEC said Natural Blue’s business mission is to “create, acquire, or otherwise invest in environmentally-friendly companies,” including a water-purifying system in New Mexico.

New Mexico’s Business Service Division currently lists Natural Blue as a company “not in good standing,” with Pelosi listed as its president, the Free Beacon said.