Judge Freezes Assets of Woodland Hills Firm in Fraud Suit

A federal judge has issued a temporary restraining order and frozen the assets of a Woodland Hills business run by a man the Securities and Exchange Commission calls a repeat securities violator.

A securities fraud suit filed Wednesday in U. S. District Court in Los Angeles alleges that Assured International Inc. sold nearly $830,000 in stock in the company without telling investors that its president was Sam E. Harris.

The former Thousand Oaks man last year was censured, fined $20,000 and permanently barred from association with any member of the National Assn. of Securities Dealers for his role in promoting questionable oil and gas limited partnerships, the association said.

The most recent case involves the private placement sale of stock in Assured, which investors were told was a company that made and distributed disposable latex gloves.

The SEC charges in its civil suit that the company was really a boiler-room operation, that no products were produced and that nearly one-fourth of the funds raised from investors--$202,422--went directly to Harris. The SEC also alleges that the company misled investors about how their funds would be used.

Neither Harris, his attorney nor a representative of Assured could be reached for comment.

In response to a request from the SEC, U. S. District Judge Dean D. Pregerson issued a restraining order forbidding the company to sell any more shares. The judge also froze the assets of the company pending the outcome of a Jan. 29 hearing.

Requests for such emergency actions are fairly rare, made only about four to six times per year in the Los Angeles region, according to Lisa Gok, assistant director of the SEC’s regional office of enforcement.