(WHAS11) - Keeping up with David Rose is a tricky ordeal since he’s associated with so many companies.
Investors tell WHAS11 News they believe this practice is aimed at luring new investors and getting away from those who realize they've been defrauded.
We even discovered several members of the Rose family set up a corporation to protect their assets in hopes that neither their investors nor Uncle Sam will be able to get anything back.
They are mansions just about anyone would envy. One home in Anchorage valued at over $1.5 Million. Another nearby is appraised at nearly $900,000. One house sits on Arnold Palmer Blvd. and another 12,000 square foot Chateau has stables for 30 horses.
Then there are several hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of race horses, a 1965 Mustang Convertible and even a 70-foot river yacht named "Blowin' Money".
All of it was purchased by David, Brian, Jason or Joyce Rose but you won't find their names on any of it.
The assets have all been sold or transferred to a company called "Future Happiness, LLC."
Investors believe it was set up to keep profits from fraudulent oil and gas ventures from being forfeited.
“I’ve had a guy send me a million dollars in ten months,” said a former Rose employee who we’ll call Jack.
He used to work for one of David Rose's companies out of a building on East Spring Street which was also owned by "Future Happiness, LLC".
We obtained invoices from Cambridge and Kingsley. Brian and Jason's company and David G. Rose all list the building as their address.
A small house two doors down also belongs to "Future Happiness".
Former employees say records are kept there for some of at least six oil and gas companies which have operated out of the same two southern Indiana office buildings.
“Most of the money's going into the managing partners program, which is David Rose,” Jack said.
The Security and Exchange Commission shares Jack's beliefs.
In a complaint filed in June against David Rose and one of Rose's companies, Berkshire Resources, SEC lawyers say Berkshire raised approximately $15.5 million from 265 investors during a 20-month period beginning in 2006.
The suit alleges that not a single investor has received any profit, but the Roses used the money for what the SEC called their "own personal slush fund" paying for such things as plastic surgery for David Rose, flying lessons for Brian Rose and a Kentucky Derby party at Churchill Downs.
In their response, the Roses' attorneys deny the claims.
Brian Rose told us his family is trying to settle the suit.
Meanwhile, a new company called United Coastal Exploration is now being operated out of the Spring Street location, even though several people listed as members of the company's "leadership team" denied any affiliation with the company when we contacted them.
Earth Energy Exploration is operating out of another office building on Missouri Avenue in Jeffersonville.
The president Jason Towe is a former employee of one of David Rose’s companies.
“With the Internet being available, people are finding out he was associated with these corporations and it was a lot harder for him to conduct business and make sales. So he had to keep changing the names of the corporation,” said Jack.
The companies are so similar that essentially the same promotional DVDs go out in sales packets.
WHAS11 obtained videos for Earth Energy Exploration and United Coastal Exploration.
A company e-mail we obtained from an employee of one of Rose's companies to the production company that created them asked that only logos and narration be changed from one version to another, to save on costs.
Maps and descriptions in their marketing materials are also almost identical.
“Someone in law enforcement ain't doing their job, if they can just change their name and keep on going,’ said Rick Wimp. “A crook's a crook.”
Rick Wimp's father lost $300,000 in enTerra, one of Rose's companies.
“Once you send a certified check to them, it’s gone,” Wimp said.
Rose was indicted by federal grand juries in January and March of 2008.
He was released on bond, but he was told his bond would be revoked if he broke any federal laws.
We discovered Rose continued working in the oil and gas business, billing $10,000 "consulting fees" weekly to Lux Petroleum and Earth Energy Exploration.
Business even appeared to continue to boom, even after Rose entered a 'guilty" plea which granted him a deal in which he would only serve 4-and-a-half years of a possible 425 year sentence that also required him to pay nearly $3 million in restitution from $6 million in proceeds.
“When somebody's got an allegation against them and they've got pretty good facts proving that they murdered someone, they don't let them go out and run around on the street. But they let these companies continue to conduct business the way they have and always will while they're under investigation for fraud,” said Jack.
David Rose is scheduled to be officially sentenced on December 23rd at the Federal Courthouse in Louisville.
The SEC is asking for a Southern Indiana Judge to issue a default judgment in the Federal civil suit, which could result in forfeiture of many of the Rose’s assets.
