ATLANTA … An investigation by the Secretary of State’s Securities Division has led to a former Atlanta securities salesman being found guilty of selling unregistered securities and fraudulent nine-month promissory notes to Georgia investors.         

    Phillip L. Mosley, 53, was found guilty of three counts of securities fraud and one count of violating Georgia’s R.I.C.O.(Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) Act by a Paulding County jury Wednesday.

    The charges stem from an investigation by the Secretary of State’s Securities Division into numerous complaints that Mosley sold unregistered securities in the form of nine-month promissory notes to clients, many of them elderly, whose trust he had gained while working as a registered securities salesman with various broker dealers in the Atlanta area.  Several victims lost most of their life savings in various investment scams orchestrated by Mosley from 1996 to1998.  During this time, Mosley opened the firm “Mosley and Associates” and advertised it as a licensed securities brokerage firm when, in fact, it was not licensed.

    The case was referred to Paulding County District Attorney James Osborne’s office in early 2000, although Mosley had fled the state of Georgia. Mosley was later located and arrested in North Carolina and extradited to Paulding County where he has been held since May 31, 2000. 

    “I am proud of the role our investigators played in preventing this financial predator from consuming the life savings of even more Georgians,” said Secretary Cox. “I commend Paulding District Attorney James Osborne for his success in pursuing a criminal conviction in this case,” she added.

    Nationally, promissory note schemes have bilked Americans of more than $300 million in the last two years and have emerged as the leading source of securities fraud in the nation. In recent months, criminal and civil actions have been pursued throughout the country against hundreds of individuals involving thousands of promissory note victims.

    The conclusion of this case follows months of investigations by a multi-state promissory note task force created in May of 1999 to combat the recent explosion of promissory note scams. The national task force, organized by the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA), was formed to identify promissory scams and educate consumers on how to avoid them.

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