St. Louis, Mo.-One of the main figures has been sentenced to three years in prison for his role in a Nevada corporation that offered investors a 7 to 9 percent return, paid monthly, from high profits generated by minerals from a mine that produced an environmentally-friendly fertilizer for retail sale. From 2004 through 2006 Frank Schwartz, 45, Los Angeles, Calif., was part of Earthly Minerals Solutions Inc., which sold hundreds of investors across the country approximately $18 million worth of mining claims in the desert south of Las Vegas, Nev., according to Acting United States Attorney Michael Reap. Roy Higgs, 67, of Henderson, Nev., founder and chairman of the board of EMS, was indicted on related charges and awaits trial. In all, Reap said, more than 250 investors have lost principal and interest payments they were promised as part of their agreement to invest in EMS’s mining claims. In addition to the criminal case, Higgs, Schwartz, EMS, and the company’s former general counsel, Rick Lawton, face a civil enforcement action brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission. That case in Las Vegas has been stayed pending the outcome of the St. Louis case. As part of his guilty plea, Schwartz agreed to settle the SEC case. “This case is a tragic example of investment promoters abusing the trust placed in them,” said Reap. “Essentially, this was a complex, risky investment which was sold to the public as simple and sure.”
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain