MIDLAND COUNTY, Texas (Nexstar)- Midland County District Attorney Laura Nodolf announced that a Lubbock man was sentenced late Thursday to two 11-year terms in prison after being found guilty by a Midland County jury. Those sentences will run concurrently.
Foster was charged with first degree securities fraud and theft of over $200,000, according to a release.
Nodolf said the victims were former employees of Baker Hughes around Texas, California, and Germany hoping to make money on wells in New Mexico. All told, the victims invested more than $360,000 with Foster. However, Foster had never acquired the rights to drill on the lease.
Evidence showed Foster had promoted his investment deal as a joint venture where he would maintain control of all the operations and all the investment money. If the investors gave him their money, he would drill the well and they could profit on the returns.
Financial examiners with the State Securities board showed jurors how the investor’s dollars were quickly transferred into accounts controlled only by Foster and then spent on personal expenses like jewelry and a trip to Paris, France.
Within one year all the investor’s dollars were spent, and Foster was nowhere to be found.
The German investors, frustrated at the lack of communication and progress on a well they thought was being drilled, contacted attorneys in the United States who submitted the case to the Texas Securities Board before it was forwarded to the Midland District Attorney’s Office.
After sentencing, Foster was taken into custody at Midland County Jail. He will be sent to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Institutional Division to serve out his sentence.
