ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEEDING
File No. 3-21508

June 30, 2023 – The Securities and Exchange Commission today instituted settled administrative and cease-and-desist proceedings against Damon Durante for unregistered broker activity for selling shares of Global Resource Energy, Inc. (OTC: GBEN), a Fort Worth-based microcap company.  

The SEC’s order finds that GBEN’s undisclosed control person directed Durante to work with a network of salespersons to solicit investors to purchase GBEN’s restricted shares.  Durante received approximately 50% of these sales proceeds.  In addition, Durante and a network of salespersons solicited investors to buy free-trading GBEN shares available in the open market, and Durante received approximately 35% of the sale proceeds as transaction-based compensation.  Durante pleaded guilty in a parallel criminal proceeding in the Northern District of Ohio, and he was sentenced to six months imprisonment.  See United States v. Collins, et al., 1:20-cr-00842-BYP (N.D. Ohio).   

Durante consented to the SEC’s order finding that he willfully violated Section 15(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (Exchange Act), and agreed to an order of disgorgement and prejudgment interest, civil penalty, bar from association with any broker, dealer, investment adviser, municipal securities dealer, municipal advisor, transfer agent, or nationally recognized statistical rating organization, and a bar from participating in any offering of a penny stock, including: acting as a promoter, finder, consultant, agent or other person who engages in activities with a broker, dealer, or issuer for purposes of the issuance or trading in any penny stock, or inducing or attempting to induce the purchase or sale of any penny stock. 

In a separate proceeding filed today in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, the SEC charged five individuals, Thomas Collins, Patrick Thomas, Gary Kouletas, Scott Levine, and Brian Kingsfield, with violating the antifraud provisions of Section 10(b) of the Exchange Act and Rules 10b-5(a) and (c) thereunder and Sections 17(a)(1) and (a)(3) of the Securities Act of 1933 for their roles in a fraudulent scheme regarding GBEN.  The SEC also charged Kingsfield with violating Section 15(a) of the Exchange Act for acting as an unregistered broker.  The Defendants agreed to consent to the charges and to permanent injunctive relief, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains with prejudgment interest, civil penalties, and penny stock bars.  Collins and Thomas also agreed to officer-and-director bars.  The settlement is subject to court approval.

The SEC’s investigation was conducted by Derek Kleinmann and Ty Martinez, and supervised by Sarah S. Mallett and Eric R. Werner of the SEC’s Fort Worth Regional Office.