The Arizona Corporation Commission has ordered Michael Barry Eckerman of Paradise Valley, Luxury Management Group and MTE 2013 Trust to pay restitution and administrative penalties for defrauding investors with an investment involving real estate and luxury automobile rentals.
The Commission ordered the respondents to pay $733,606 in restitution. The Commission ordered Eckerman to pay an administrative penalty of $100,000 and Luxury Management Group to pay a $70,000 penalty.
The Commission found Luxury Management Group, LLC was a short-term real estate and automobile rental company that sold unregistered promissory notes to three investors, two of whom also were sold future options in company stock and one of whom was also sold investment contracts. One investor placed her life’s savings with respondents.
The Commission found the respondents titled their contracts as “commercial paper loans” when they were actually securities subject to the Commission’s jurisdiction. None of the respondents were authorized to offer or sell securities in Arizona.
The Commission found Michael Eckerman was the subject of prior temporary cease and desist orders filed by the Corporation Commission, Michael Eckerman’s prior companies failed to pay investors and Luxury Management Group’s house rentals were threatened by injunction litigation initiated by a Paradise Valley homeowner’s association.