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by Mike Caswell

Prosecutors in Virginia have filed criminal charges against Phillip Offill, a disbarred and previously jailed Texas lawyer with Canadian connections. They claim that he was part of a scheme to sell $1.3-million worth of improperly issued shares in a purported Arizona mining company. (All figures are in U.S. dollars.) The scheme began shortly after Mr. Offill left prison for his part in a prior pump-and-dump scheme run by two Ontario men.

The allegations against Mr. Offill are contained in an indictment that federal prosecutors unveiled on Thursday, Sept. 15. Mr. Offill was arrested in Texas on Sept. 2, 2022, and remains in custody. The charges against him are wire fraud, securities fraud and a related conspiracy count.

While the criminal charges were only recently unsealed, the matter is not a new one. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has been pursuing Mr. Offill for the scheme since Jan. 21, 2022. The SEC's charges are civil, which means that they do not include the possibility of jail time. The criminal charges come with a maximum sentence of 20 years.

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