The owner of an oil field acquisition company was charged last week with securities fraud for allegedly bilking more than $7 million from 9,000 investors to fund a lifestyle that included cars, boats, furs, vacations and houses. Several financial institutions, including Mazuma Credit Union, Bank of America, U.S. Bank and at least nine others were used by the firm's founder to conduct transactions, authorities discovered.

According to a federal criminal complaint filed by the Securities Commissioner of the State of Kansas, Isreal Owen Hawkins, the owner and CEO of Petro America Corp., began the sale of the single issuance of company stock in September 2008 at a cost of $100 per 100,000 shares. Hawkins promised investors the book value of the stock would be $2 per share when Petro went public. Also involved were Teresa Brown, a major Petro shareholder and Johnny Heurung, another shareholder, according to the complaint.

Promotion of the share sales was made through Kansas City churches, e-mail solicitations, website promotions and telephone conference calls. Some suspicious investors alerted state authorities. Hawkins told investors Petro was worth $284 million through the acquisition of crude oil field, gold mines and other companies, according to the federal complaint. In November 2008, the Missouri Secretary of State, Division of Securities issued a cease and desist order against Petro, Hawkins and Martin Roeper. Hawkins and Petro were fined nearly $39,000 but never paid, authorities said.