348 F.Supp. 766
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE
COMMISSION, Plaintiff,
v.
GLENN W. TURNER ENTERPRISES,
INC., a Florida corporation, et al.,
Defendants.
Civ. No. 72-390.
United States District Court,
D. Oregon.
Aug. 30, 1972.
OPINION WITH FINDINGS OF FACT,
CONCLUSIONS OF LAW, AND
ORDER
SKOPIL, District Judge:
On May 17, 1972, the Securities and
Exchange Commission filed the complaint
against defendants, seeking an injunction
against violation of the federal securities
laws, and other relief. The SEC
contended that what defendants were
selling were securities within the meaning
of the statutes. The defendants denied
that they were securities and,
consequently, moved to dismiss on the
grounds that the Court had no jurisdiction
over this action. Various memoranda
were filed, numerous affidavits and
exhibits were presented, and the Court
held hearings on the application for a
preliminary injunction, appointment of a
receiver and an accounting on July 11,
12, 13 and 14, 1972. After the hearings
were concluded, the Court heard oral
argument on August 14, 1972. Before
that hearing, the Court had indicated to
the parties that all reserved rulings on the
admissibility of evidence would be decided
in favor of admissibility and the parties
were instructed to argue with that
understanding. Both sides rested with
respect to the request for a preliminary
injunction at the conclusion of oral
argument. Accordingly, this matter is now
ripe for decision.
*769 I
FINDINGS OF FACT
A. THE DEFENDANTS.
1) Glenn W. Turner Enterprises, Inc. is a
Florida corporation.
2) Dare to be Great, Inc., also a Florida
corporation, is a wholly-owned subsidiary
of Glenn W. Turner Enterprises, Inc.
3) The individual defendants, Turner,
Wilder, Atkinson, O'Brien, Smith, Monroe,
Everard, and Arthur are, or were, officers,
directors or employees of the defendant
corporations.
4) The defendant Sant has not been
linked to these proceedings.
B. THE ADVENTURES.
5) Dare to be Great, Inc. offers to sell to
the public a series of contracts which it
calls "Adventures" and classifies as
motivational or self-improvement courses.
The purchaser of Adventure 1 receives a
portable tape recorder, 12 lessons
contained in 12 tape recordings, and
certain written material in notebooks. He
is entitled to attend a 12 to 16-hour group
session. The cost of Adventure 1 is $300.
Adventure 2 contains, in addition to the
materials offered in Adventure 1, twelve
additional lessons with tape recordings. It
offers approximately 80 additional hours
of group sessions. Adventure 2, which
necessarily includes Adventure 1, costs
$700. In other words, a purchaser of
Adventure 1 must pay an additional $400
for Adventure 2. Adventure 2 is not sold
without Adventure 1.
The purchaser of Adventure 3 receives,
in addition to the material from
Adventures 1 and 2, six additional tape
recordings, one notebook of written
material called "The Fun of Selling," and a
limited amount of written instructions and
material. The purchaser of Adventure 3 is
also entitled to 30 additional hours of
group sessions. This Adventure costs
$2,000, or $1,300 in addition to the cost of
Adventures 1 and 2, which are
necessarily included in Adventure 3. The
purchaser of Adventure 3, however,
receives an additional benefit different in
kind from those available in Adventures 1
and 2. After fulfilling relatively nominal
requirements, he becomes an
"Independent Sales Trainee" and is
empowered to "sell" the Adventures. He
receives $100 for each Adventure 1, $300
for each Adventure 2, and $900 for each
Adventure 3 which he "sells."
The purchaser of Adventure 4 receives
six additional tapes, may or may not
receive a movie projector with six
cartridge-type films, and has the
opportunity for 30 additional hours of
group sessions. He is also entitled to
attend two other week-long courses at his
own expense in Florida. For this he pays
an additional $3,000, or a total of $5,000
for Adventure 4, which includes the
preceding Adventures. He also becomes
designated as an "Independent Sales
Agent," entitled to "sell" all of the
Adventures to others. He receives the
same return as does the purchaser of
Adventure 3. However, in addition, he is
entitled to "sell" Adventure 4, for each of
which he receives $2,500, or half the
purchase price.
Defendants offer a variation on the
Adventures which was referred to in
testimony as the "$1,000 Plan." The
purchaser of this plan receives the tape
cassettes sold in Adventure 2 but without
the written material which accompanies
them. In addition, a purchaser of this plan
receives some additional sales instruction
and may be entitled to a 24-hour group
session. Unlike a purchaser of Adventure
2, however, he has an opportunity to
make money from this plan if he brings
two additional individuals to the one who
sold him his plan. If those additional
individuals purchase the plan, he then
becomes entitled thereafter to receive
$400 out of each $1,000 paid for the
purchase of the plan by any further
additional purchasers of the plan who
purchase through him. Each additional
purchaser, of course, must in turn *770
bring him yet three more in order for that
additional investor to become entitled to
income from this plan.
It is possible to enter this plan without
making an investment by bringing in one
extra person, i. e., three rather than two.
C. THE SYSTEM IN OPERATION.
6) Salesmen of these Adventures seek
new customers anywhere. They accost
strangers in stores, streets and elsewhere
and make no attempt to search out
persons with sales ability, financial
acumen or other skills. Those who
eventually do make purchases appear to
have fairly limited resources and
education.
7) Salesmen must not explain to
prospects anything about what they are
selling. Their duty is strictly limited to
arousing curiosity in the prospect and
persuading him to attend an "Adventure
Meeting," organized by defendants. One
of the principal methods of arousing
curiosity which is demanded by
defendants is that the salesmen make a
display of great wealth. A salesman
should drive an expensive car, wear
expensive clothing and display large
amounts of currency in high
denominations, while intimating that the
prospect also can have an opportunity for
great wealth. Despite the display, the
salesman may, in fact, be nearly destitute.
8) The principal selling effort occurs at
meetings and other functions organized
by defendants. The salesman has no
control over these meetings. The
atmosphere is one of potential
overwhelming financial return, dramatized
by the appearance of large numbers of
expensive cars, expensively-dressed
individuals, and stories of great riches
achieved through defendants' operations.
9) Meetings are conducted with an
appearance of great spontaneity.
Speakers talk loudly and rapidly with great
emotional fervor. There are cheers and
chants from the audience. The speakers,
however, follow a strict script written by
defendants' central organization, and they
are not permitted to depart from it. The
cheers and chants are prearranged. The
speakers make somewhat passing
reference to the motivational courses and
what they will do for individuals. The
major emphasis, however, is on the
opportunities for earning money by
purchasing Adventure 4. The script
followed by defendants' speakers carefully
avoids actually guaranteeing a return and
does contain a statement that the
prospect must expect to work. The
impression which is fostered, however, by
emphasis and psychological technique, is
on the near inevitability of success
achieved by anyone who follows
defendants' directions. For example, it is
said that one individual earns $50,000 per
month, which is described as an unusual
achievement, although the salesman was
an ordinary person. A housewife's
earnings of $16,000 per month are called
"good." Some people earn nothing, which
is described as "very poor," and is
attributed to their failure to "believe in the
philosophy of millionaires."
10) At no time do defendants' agents
make any effort to explain potential
difficulties of saturation and pyramiding.
It is not revealed that those who make the
pitch are far from earning the amounts
which they say are ordinary results.
11) After the speakers have finished,
salesmen attempt to persuade the
prospect to buy one of the Adventures,
with emphasis on Adventure 4.
Sometimes the individual salesman
makes this offer, but at other times,
agents of defendants who are specialists
at the required techniques of
psychological hardsell take over and
accomplish the sale. On occasion the
sale has been accomplished in the name
of the individual who gets credit for it,
without the latter even having been
present. Sales tactics which are
employed are calculated to ignore and
bypass rational objections and analysis.
The emphasis is, again, on large amounts
of easy money. The technique is so
strictly prearranged that it contains, for
example, instructions how to write
$130,000 and other sums on the paper,
and to avoid asking the prospect *771 to
sign a contract because that sometimes
triggers the response of wanting to read it.
On at least some occasions, potential
customers who object that they do not
have the money required are told how
they may get bank loans by deceiving the
banks as to the purpose of the loan, and
by making simultaneous applications at a
number of different banks without
informing any of them that the other
applications have been made.
12) The prospects are also encouraged
with great emphasis on the possibility that
by "getting in on the ground floor," they
will have opportunities for future lucrative
investments and employment in
defendants' forthcoming ventures.
13) Prospects who have not succumbed
at the Adventure Meetings may be taken
on a "go-tour" to one of defendants'
regional centers by airplane or bus. They
are brought to an environment where they
are isolated from other contact and are
surrounded by defendants' agents and
employees. The same psychological
techniques and the same kinds of
representations as they use at the
meetings are employed on these tours.
14) Few, if any, purchasers of these
Adventures have achieved any success
remotely approaching that described by
defendants' agents, to their financial and
emotional distress.
15) Saturation of the market has, in fact,
occurred at least in some localities.
Purchasers have found themselves
unable to resell the Adventures to others
because those whom they approach
either have already purchased or else
have been made wary by having been
approached by other salesmen.
II
CONCLUSIONS OF LAW
A.
It is apparent from this Court's findings of
fact that the defendants are promoting a
type of scheme commonly known as a
pyramid operation. Pyramid schemes are
inherently unstable and eventually must
collapse. As the SEC has pointed out,
there is inevitably a limit to the number of
investors who can get their money back.
Investors get a return only so long as
increasing numbers of others like them
invest their own money. Consequently, it
is certain that the source of funds must
eventually dry up leaving a large
proportion of the investors stranded with
their losses. In this respect, the scheme
is closely analagous to so-called chain
letters which are unmailable under the
provisions of the Mail Fraud Statute, 18
U.S.C. 1341. The question for this
Court is whether what defendants offer
their investors is a security within the
meaning of the Securities Act of 1933 and
the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
B.
The Supreme Court has insisted that the
Securities Acts must be interpreted
liberally and broadly. It has rejected
narrow and strict construction in order to
carry out the remedial purposes of the
legislation. Securities and Exchange
Commission v. W. J. Howey Co., 328
U.S. 293, 66 S.Ct. 1100, 90 L.Ed. 1244
(1946). In the same opinion the court
approved a certain interpretation of the
Securities Act of 1933 because it
embodied
... a flexible rather than a static principle,
one that is capable of adaptation to
meet the countless and variable
schemes devised by those who seek the
use of the money of others on the
promise of profits. 328 U.S. at 299, 66
S.Ct. at 1103.
The very purpose of the statutes would
be violated if they were construed to apply
only to familiar and conventional
transactions and were not capable of
adaptation to novel and irregular schemes
fairly covered by the intent and text of the
statutes. Thus, the Supreme Court has
said that in interpreting these acts, "form
should be disregarded for substance and
the emphasis should be on economic
reality." Tcherepnin v. Knight, 389 U.S.
332, 336, 88 S.Ct. 548, 553, 19 L.Ed.2d
564 (1967). Years before, the Supreme
Court had stated that the test *772 of the
applicability of these acts was "what
character the instrument is given in
commerce by the terms of the offer, the
plan of distribution, and the economic
inducements held out to the prospect."
Securities and Exchange Commission v.
C. M. Joiner Leasing Corp., 320 U.S. 344,
352-353, 64 S.Ct. 120, 124, 88 L.Ed. 88
(1943).
It is apparent that defendants' pyramid
promotion contains the same evils which
the Securities Acts are intended to
suppress. Defendants have devised a
novel scheme to seek the use of money of
others on the promise of profit to them.
Defendants stated to the Court, and the
Court agrees, that compliance by
defendants with the provisions of the
Securities Acts would mean the death of
this enterprise. In the opinion of the
Court, this is so because the disclosure
and anti-deception provisions of the
statutes would be totally inimical to the
success of the promotion, for it is based
upon blinding potential prospects to the
realities of the scheme.
[1] Defendants argue that what they offer
their prospects are not securities nor
investments but in reality products and
services. It is true that in each of the
various "Adventures" there are tape
recordings, printed materials and various
devices which are made available to the
adventurers. Without passing judgment
on the quality or value of these materials,
it is nevertheless obvious that defendants
are involved in much more than the mere
sale of a product. There are distinct
promises made to potential customers
and, consequently, it is the duty of the
Court to consider them separately.
Securities and Exchange Commission v.
United Benefit Life Ins. Co., 387 U.S. 202,
207-209, 87 S.Ct. 1557, 1559-1561, 18
L.Ed.2d 673 (1967). The evidence
presented by the SEC indicates that
defendants have promoted their scheme
as an investment and have so
represented it to the objects of their sales
efforts. In this context the Supreme
Court's remark in Joiner is apropos:
[I]t is not inappropriate that promoters'
offerings be judged as being what they
were represented to be. 320 U.S. at
353, 64 S.Ct. at 124.
It is equally clear from the evidence that
the purchasers of the higher-priced
Adventures thought they were paying for
something more than the materials. That
something was the promise and
expectation of a return on their
investment. It is primarily for these
reasons that under the laws of three
different states the offerings of defendants
have been construed to be investments in
securities, and consequently, in violation
of state laws governing the sale and
promotion of such schemes.
[2] There is little doubt, then, that
defendants are soliciting investments on a
grand scale from individuals of relatively
limited resources and education. As
defendants tirelessly emphasized, it is
nevertheless true that in order to subject
them to the provisions of the securities
acts, it must be determined that they are
offering and selling securities as that term
is used in the statutes.
[3][4] Throughout these proceedings,
defendants have taken the unjustified
position that the opportunities offered in
their contracts to potential customers are
securities only if they are "investment
contracts." Statutory definitions, however,
are considerably more inclusive. In the
Securities Act of 1933, 15 U.S.C.
77b(1),
The term "security" means any note,
stock, treasury stock, bond, debenture,
evidence of indebtedness, certificate of
interest or participation in any profit-sharing agreement, collateral-trust
certificate, preorganization certificate or
subscription, transferable share,
investment contract, voting- trust
certificate, certificate of deposit for a
security, fractional undivided interest in
oil, gas, or other mineral rights, or, in
general, any interest or instrument
commonly known as a "security", or any
certificate of interest or participation in,
temporary or interim certificate *773 for,
receipt for, guarantee of, or warrant or
right to subscribe to or purchase, any of
the foregoing.
In the Securities Exchange Act of 1934,
15 U.S.C. 78c(10),
The term "security" means any note,
stock, treasury stock, bond, debenture,
certificate of interest or participation in
any profit-sharing agreement or in any
oil, gas, or other mineral royalty or
lease, any collateral-trust certificate,
preorganization certificate or subcription,
transferable share, investment contract,
voting-trust certificate, certificate of
deposit, for a security, or in general, any
instrument commonly known as a
"security"; or any certificate of interest or
participation in, temporary or interim
certificate for, receipt for, or warrant or
right to subscribe to or purchase, any of
the foregoing; but shall not include
currency or any note, draft, bill of
exchange, or banker's acceptance
which has a maturity at the time of
issuance of not exceeding nine months,
exclusive of days of grace, or any
renewal thereof the maturity of which is
likewise limited.
It is obvious that whether or not this
promotion offers investment contracts, if
offers securities for sale so long as any
one or more of the terms used in the
statutes are satisfied.
C.
[5] The SEC suggested that defendants'
offering satisfied the general categories of
the statutes, i. e., "in general, any interest
or instrument commonly known as a
'security'." As far as can be determined,
these general phrases have not been
applied by any court, and there are no
precedents directly in point for the
guidance of this Court. However, as a
principle of statutory construction, these
general categories cannot be disregarded
or construed as devoid of meaning.
Considering the nature of these statutes,
the inclusion of these general phrases is
yet another indication of the strength of
the congressional desire that the statute
be interpreted broadly, flexibly and
liberally. Congress wanted to provide no
loopholes for promotions in conflict with
the purposes of the securities laws.
[6] The Court doubts that Congress
intended that in order to qualify under
these general categories, a transaction
must be commonly known to the man in
the street as a security. Most securities
are rather technical in nature and not
likely to be understood except by the legal
or financial community. It is sufficient that
an offering be considered as a legal
matter to be a security, regardless of the
popular perception of it. Since the
Supreme Court has indicated that it is
appropriate to look to state law to give
content to the terms used in the definition,
Howey supra, state decisions may be a
most trustworthy authority on what is
commonly known as a security.
State courts have made admirable efforts
to interpret the securities laws consistent
with their purposes. Over ten years ago,
the California Supreme Court articulated
a test which simply recognized that the
subjection of the investor's money to the
risk of an enterprise over which he
exercises no managerial control is the
basic economic reality of a security
transaction. Silver Hills Country Club v.
Sobieski, 55 Cal.2d 811, 13 Cal.Rptr. 186,
361 P.2d 906 (1961). The California test,
called the "risk capital" test, has since
been substantially adopted by courts in a
number of states; State of Hawaii by
Commissioner of Securities v. Hawaii
Market Center, Inc., 485 P.2d 105 (1971);
Hurst v. Dare to be Great, Inc., Civ. No.
71-160, (D. Or., January 12, 1972); State
ex rel. Healy v. Consumer Business
System, Inc., 92 Or. Adv. Sh. 287, 482
P.2d 549 (Ct. of Appeals, 1971); Venture
Investment Co., Inc. v. Schaefer, Civ. No.
C-2732 (D. Colo., June 16, 1972); Mr.
Steak, Inc. v. River City Steak, Inc., 324
F.Supp. 640 (D. Colo. 1970), aff'd., 460
F.2d 666 (10th Cir. 1972); State of Idaho
v. Glenn Turner Enterprises, Inc., Civ. No.
47773 (Dist.Ct., *774 4th Jud. Dist.,
March 28, 1972). By applying the risk
capital test, defendants' promotions have
been held to be securities under the laws
of Oregon and Idaho; Hurst, State of
Idaho, supra. They have also been held
to be securities as well as a lottery under
the laws of the state of Florida, Frye v.
Taylor, 263 So.2d 835 (Fla.Dist.Ct. of
Appeal, 4th Dist., 1972). Although not
entirely clear, it appears that the Florida
court adopted the risk capital approach
because it cited Healy as the basis for its
determination.
[7] The spread of the risk capital theory
from the state in which it was first applied
to other states and the favorable comment
with which it has been received make it an
appropriate test to look to for determining
what is "commonly known as a security."
There probably have been few schemes
devised that more closely meet the test
than does the defendants' promotion. In
the opinion of the Court, both the letter
and the purposes of the statutes are
satisfied by holding, therefore, that
defendants are offering and selling
contracts which are commonly known as
securities within the meaning of the
federal statutes.
D.
The issue which was most thoroughly
litigated was whether these contracts are
"investment contracts" within the meaning
of the statutes. The Supreme Court first
defined the term "investment contract" in
Howey, wherein it said:
[A]n investment contract for purposes of
the Securities Act means a contract,
transaction or scheme whereby a
person invests his money in a common
enterprise and is led to expect profits
solely from the efforts of the promoter or
a third party.... 328 U.S. at 298-299, 66
S.Ct. at 1103.
What defendants offer their prospects
easily meets the first two criteria of this
three-part test. As noted previously, the
contracts were regarded as investments
both by sellers and purchasers. Similarly,
this promotion embodied a common
enterprise, for any return to the investors
depended upon the defendants' success
in inducing yet more people to invest their
money.
The real sticking point in the definition of
an investment contract is the requirement
that investors expect profit solely from the
efforts of others. Defendants stress that
investors are told they must do sales work
in order to get any return at all. The
"work" required of investors is to persuade
additional individuals to come to meetings
organized by defendants where they may
be subjected to the full force of
defendants' hard sell. Furthermore, they
are encouraged to make ostentatious
displays of wealth to deceive prospective
customers. Defendants, therefore,
conclude that the profits in this enterprise
do not come solely from defendants' own
efforts but rather are dependent in whole
or in part upon the efforts of the investors
themselves. It follows, they argue, that
these transactions are not investment
contracts within the Supreme Court's
definition and that, consequently, they are
not securities within the meaning of the
statutes.
It is by no means clear that the Supreme
Court intended its three-pronged definition
of an investment contract to be a litmus
test which must be applied literally and
strictly. A narrow focus on this particular
locution seems anomalous for the court
has already said, in interpreting the
statutes themselves, that liberal and
broad interpretations are required in order
to carry out the intent of Congress. From
this flows the court's stress on the
economic realities behind transactions, on
substance rather than form. Furthermore,
in this particular area of the law, to insist
upon a strict application of a definition
would inevitably lead to the exploitation of
loopholes created by that definition. For
example, if the "solely from the efforts of
others" test were to be applied *775
strictly as defendants urge, any number of
devices can be invented to avoid that test.
Promoters could require some nominal
effort of their would-be investors along
with the contribution of their money, such
as solving a puzzle or writing an essay.
This Court has doubts that either the
Supreme Court or the Courts of Appeals
would sanction such efforts to evade the
securities laws.
In cases which have construed the
"solely from the efforts of others" test, the
emphasis has been on the economic
realities in each case. Although the Court
of Appeals underscored the test in
Chapman v. Rudd Paint and Varnish Co.,
409 F.2d 635 (9th Cir. 1969), the
franchise agreement in that case which
was unsuccessfully alleged to be a
security contemplated a major and
controlling role for the plaintiff-franchisee.
The extensive efforts of the franschisor
were devoted mainly to equipping and
stocking that franchise after which point it
was turned over to the franchisee and
became dependent upon his efforts. In
another case in which the franchise
agreement was alleged to be a security,
the emphasis on the role played by the
franchisee was even more apparent. Mr.
Steak, supra. The court there found it
necessary to weigh the relative
participation in the control of the
franchised restaurant before determining
that the substantial degree of authority
held by the franchisee was inconsistent
with a securities transaction. See also
Romney v. Richard Prows, Inc., 289
F.Supp. 313 (D. Utah 1968), in which the
plaintiff was unsuccessful in attempting to
have the transaction declared an
investment contract because he had an
important role in the success or failure of
the enterprise.
The most essential consistency in the
cases which have considered the
meaning of "investment contract" is the
emphasis on whether or not the investor
has substantial power to affect the
success of the enterprise. When his
success requires professional or
managerial skill on his part, and he has
authority corresponding with his
responsibility, his investment is not a
security within the meaning of the
securities acts. When he is relatively
uninformed and unskilled and then turns
over his money to others, essentially
depending upon their representations and
their honesty and skill in managing it, the
transaction is an investment contract.
[8] In applying the Supreme Court's
definition of an investment contract,
therefore, the efforts of others which are
relevant for purposes of the definition are
those essential managerial efforts which
affect the failure or success of the
enterprise. In this context, there are
several significant aspects to defendants'
promotion. First, they seek to entice
anyone who can pay the cost of the
"Adventures," without regard to their
education, sales and managerial skills. In
fact, defendants are apparently most
successful with individuals of limited ability
and resources who have no particularly
appropriate skills. It is irrelevant that
some of the investors may have been
adroit at this kind of sales tactics because
defendants have offered the promotion to
all, and the securities acts prohibit the
offer as well as the sale of unregistered,
nonexempt securities. Securities and
Exchange Commission v. Howey Co., 328
U.S. at 300-301, 66 S.Ct. 1100. Second,
the "efforts" of these investors are in
practice limited to approaching other
people and soliciting them to come to
meetings organized by defendants. Their
role is so limited that they are not even
permitted to tell their quarry the nature or
purpose of the meeting. The significant
efforts in this promotion are the
specialized, professional, high-powered
tactics used at these meetings by
defendants, and the ordinary investors by
themselves would be unsuccessful at
persuading anyone else of parting with
$2,000 to $5,000. The SEC aptly
paraphrased the Supreme Court opinion
in Joiner by characterizing defendants'
revival-type sales methods as the
common thread upon which everybody's
beads were strung. Third, *776 the
success of any investor depends on a
factor of which he is not made aware, i.
e., saturation of the market as the pyramid
expands. Saturation is important at every
stage, but eventually it, along with general
awareness of it, must become the only
important factor, at which time efforts of
the investor are simply irrelevant, even if
he spends all his time in futile efforts to
sell the unsellable. Since what
defendants offer and sell is the right to sell
the right to sell ad infinitum, this ultimate
irrelevance of investors' efforts is inherent
in any offer to sell. In contrast to an
investor's ineffectual efforts, the degree of
saturation is defendants' responsibility.
Accordingly, the Court concludes that the
efforts which are significant to the success
or failure of this enterprise are those of
defendants and that, consequently, their
promotion constitutes an offer of an
investment contract within the meaning of
the Securities Act and the Securities
Exchange Act.
This Court's conclusions are buttressed
by the historical antecedents of the
Supreme Court definition of an investment
contract. In Howey that term was given
the meaning that it had under state law at
the time of the enactment of the Securities
Act. The case which apparently was the
principal source of that definition was
State v. Gopher Tire and Rubber Co., 146
Minn. 52, 177 N.W. 937 (1920). In that
case, decided before the enactment of the
federal statutes, the state court held that
a scheme analogous to that in question
here which required investors to solicit
additional customers was an investment
contract and, consequently, a security
within the meaning of the state laws.
E.
Initially, the SEC's prinicpal legal theory
apparently was that the contracts offered
by defendants were certificates of interest
or participation in profit- sharing
agreements, as that term is used in the
statute. Defendants hardly replied to this
theory, however, and consequently there
was little discussion of it.
[9] Although this category of security has
been subjected to considerably less
judicial interpretation than the term
investment contract, it would seem that its
plain meaning encompasses these
transactions. What the investors receive,
after all, is a right to a cut of the profits
from other investors. In the opinion of this
Court, it is immaterial that the entire
profits in Dare to be Great are not divided
up among all the investors and that they
are only entitled to the profit from a
particular designated source. In other
words, an agreement to share some
profits is within the meaning of the
statutes as well as an agreement to share
all profits.
It should be recalled that the "solely from
the efforts of others" test is part of the
definition of investment contract, not of
the definition of security. More
specifically, the Supreme Court has not
said that in order for a transaction to
constitute a certificate of interest or
participation in a profit-sharing agreement
it must contemplate no effort on the part
of the investor. Even if the "solely" test
should be applied to this type of security
as well, the Court concludes for the
reasons set forth above that that test is
met here and that these contracts also are
certificates of interest and participation in
profit-sharing agreements as well.
III
RELIEF
[10] Defendants deny that they are
violating any securities laws and insist
that they are entitled to continue what
they contend are legitimate business
activities. They have given no indication
that they will voluntarily cease violations
of the statutes. Accordingly, the injunctive
relief requested by the SEC is appropriate
to prevent further violations and to protect
the public. Defendants will be enjoined
from selling, or offering *777 to sell, the
so- called Adventure 3 and Adventure 4 in
violation of law. Adventures 1 and 2 do
not appear to involve any security
inasmuch as the purchasers of them are
not given to expect any return from them.
The so-called "$1,000 Plan" is no less a
pyramid promotion and a security than
Adventures 3 and 4, and, consequently,
will also be enjoined.
The injunction will be directed against the
corporate defendants, Glenn W. Turner
Enterprises, Inc. and Dare to be Great,
Inc. Of course, the order will include all
officers, agents and employees of the
corporate defendants, and by the terms of
the order they must be informed of it. The
role of the individual named defendants is
not sufficiently developed in these
proceedings to warrant injunctive relief
specifically against them now, particularly
in light of the evidentiary objections raised
on their behalf. However, should the relief
granted herein prove to be insufficient, the
SEC may, of course, present a motion to
broaden the injunction and will be afforded
an opportunity to make a proper showing
that it is necessary.
[11] The Court recognizes that this order
may have a drastic effect upon
defendants' business. Since the decision
rests in part on relatively untried legal
theories, the order against selling or
offering for sale securities will be stayed
for ten days in order to afford time to seek
further relief from another forum.
However, effective immediately,
defendants are prohibited from
withdrawing any funds or assets from the
corporate defendants other than in the
regular and ordinary course of business.
Los Angeles Trust Deed & Mortgage
Exchange v. Securities and Exchange
Commission, 264 F.2d 199, 213 (9th Cir.
1959).
The SEC has not shown that the
corporate defendants are insolvent or that
the appointment of a receiver is otherwise
appropriate.
The request for an accounting will
similarly be denied since the SEC has not
made a showing that this relief is either
proper or necessary.
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