Energy Investments Firm Faces Restraining Order

The California Department of Corporations won a Superior Court temporary restraining order against Sevitski & Associates, a Westlake Village oil and gas investments concern, forcing it to stop seeking investors and placing it in receivership.

The state agency alleged that Sevitski & Associates ran a so-called Ponzi scheme, paying off some investors directly with money collected from other investors, rather than from returns on energy investments.

Sevitski & Associates told investors they were purchasing leasehold interests in oil and gas wells in Oklahoma, according to court papers. The firm raised $12.5 million from about 425 investors and paid about $3.9 million of that directly back to investors, the court papers claim.

A lawyer for the firm could not be reached for comment. A judge appointed Irving Einhorn, a former head of the Los Angeles office of the Securities and Exchange Commission, as receiver.