In this episode, we spoke with Chris Bentley, the former CEO of Bellatorum Resources, a Texas-based energy fund. This is an episode about fraud and some of the priceless lessons for Business Owners, Investors and Entrepreneurs. 

In 2021 Chris let all his clients, employees, and partners know that he had committed fraud and squandered nearly $40 million dollars. He had used the money entrusted to him to prop up his business, an investment management firm that specialized in Texas oil and gas royalties and mineral rights. 

Bentley misappropriated funds meant for direct investments, opting to use the money to cover operational expenses at his company. He also lost all his own assets during the fraud by leveraging his house, cars, and personal investments to keep the company afloat. Bellatorum Resources ceased operations on April 9, 2021. 

He explains what happened: "After experiencing about three and a half years of massive success and growth at Bellatorum, things started to go downhill. We had some internal operational hiccups that affected our ability to generate revenue, and then the oil and gas industry hit a downturn. In early 2019, I started lying to investors and committing fraud to survive and cover our various investment and operational overheads. Eventually, everything spiraled out of control and I turned myself into the feds when my conscience got the better of me." 

 According to the SEC's complaint, Bentley raised $31.5 million from investors to purchase and sell mineral rights through the funds, but Bentley used his control over Bellatorum, the funds' investment adviser, to secretly siphon money from the funds while concealing their poor results. The complaint alleges that between approximately February 2019 and April 2021, Bentley perpetrated his scheme by repeatedly manipulating the funds' transactions, including:

(1) purchasing inflated mineral rights from an affiliated entity that he secretly controlled;

(2) purchasing mineral rights from third parties at inflated prices and then misappropriating the extra proceeds for himself and Bellatorum;

(3) manipulating sales transactions to generate fake profits and trigger distributions to Bellatorum; and

(4) altering documents to deceive two of the funds' auditors. Bentley allegedly kept his scheme afloat by secretly pledging most of the funds' mineral rights as collateral for an improper loan.

When Bentley allegedly failed to repay the loan, the lender took most of the funds' investments, which triggered massive losses for the funds and their investors. Bentley is currently serving 5 years imprisonment for squandering $40 million dollars against 152 investors.