A Centralia man who had previously sought help from the city to build a biodiesel plant in Fulton has been ordered to stop all business proceedings.
Secretary of State Jason Kander issued a cease and desist order Friday against Boyd A. Ware and his company, Central Missouri Energy, LLC (CME) for allegedly deceiving investors and scamming Missourians out of nearly $200,000. The order prohibits Ware and CME from offering or selling securities and Missouri and seeks restitution, penalties and the cost of the investigation.
According to a release from Kander's office, Ware founded CME in 2006 for the purpose of operating a biodiesel plant in Fulton. It states he sold securities without being registered with Kander's office. At least four Missouri residents invested at least $185,500 in CME between 2006 and 2009.
"Ware allegedly led investors to falsely believe CME had secured funding guarantees from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, was engaged in partnership negotiations with companies in Illinois and Mexico to develop biodiesel and had sold 90 percent of the initial units offered, among other things," the release states.
Investors were told the funds would be used to construct the biodiesel facility, but that facility still has not been built after more than seven years.
According to the release, Ware used the investors' money to pay Manuel Camargo - a Mexican national who claimed to be an attorney but allegedly had never graduated college -Camargo's ex-wife and to support another company owned by Ware.
The city of Fulton was not invested in Ware's project, but the city did deed him the property on which he said he planned to build the biodiesel plant.
"In that deed we had a reverter, and there were conditions placed on the deed that he had to build his facility within two years or the land would revert to the city," Fulton Director of Administration Bill Johnson said Saturday.
Johnson said the city did not enforce the two year time limit because it did not have anything to gain, or to lose in re-acquiring the land quickly, but the city did eventually give Ware an ultimatum in June 2011 to either purchase the land in question or return it to the city. Johnson said the land once again belongs to the city, and that city officials have not been in contact with Ware for some time.
The city and the Fulton Area Development Corporation also had helped Ware pursue a Community Development Block Grant from the state to help pay for infrastructure work at the site. Ware agreed to repay the $22,000 in Oct. 2010 when the grant expired without the project having been completed.
Bruce Hackmann, FADC president, said he also has not had any contact with Ware "for some time" and emphasized that "we never invested anything more than time" on the biodiesel project.
"We were always prepared to do our due diligence on whether he could produce what he said he could," Hackmann said. "He just never really demonstrated an ability to move his project forward."