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by Mike Caswell

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a motion for a default judgment against Brian Fox, a Calgary man facing civil charges for inflating the revenue of an Alberta oil and gas listing by $33.5-million. (All figures are in U.S. dollars.) The SEC says that Mr. Fox has failed to properly answer the case and has not responded to any communications since Aug. 16, 2011.

The charges Mr. Fox faces stem from accounting irregularities at Powder River Petroleum Inc., a former OTC Bulletin Board listing for which he served as president. The SEC claims that the company improperly recognized amounts it received from Asian investors as revenue. Based on that revenue, Mr. Fox awarded himself a $320,000 bonus.

The SEC, in its Nov. 2 motion for a default judgment, says that Mr. Fox has been in default of the suit since Sept. 30, when he failed to meet the deadline to answer an amended complaint. (He did answer an earlier version of the complaint, but the SEC says the self-filed document was unintelligible and confusing.) Since then, the SEC has attempted to contact Mr. Fox's lawyer by phone and e-mail, but has not received any response. In its final e-mail to Mr. Fox's lawyer, the SEC indicated that it would give him until Nov. 1 to respond, after which it would seek a default judgment.

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