A former Shreveport, La., attorney has been sentenced to five years in prison and ordered to pay $1 million in restitution after pleading guilty to lying in bankruptcy court about his client knowing what he'd done with their money, KSLA reported yesterday. According to the U.S. District Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Texas, James Ward Davis pleaded guilty last April to making a false statement in court during his bankruptcy proceeding. Davis operated and controlled Tower Hill Energy Co. LLC, which was purported to be in the business of acquiring oil, gas and mineral leases, interests, and royalties in north Louisiana. In February 2009, prosecutors say that Tower Hill entered into an agreement with Furie Petroleum. By way of the agreement, Tower Hill was obligated to acquire mineral rights on Furie’s behalf. Furie agreed to deposit $1 million to be used by Tower Hill “solely for the acquisition of Mineral Leases or purchase contracts/options to acquire Mineral Leases.” A client trust account for Davis’s law firm was used for escrow. Federal prosecutors say that Davis never told Furie or its representatives that he had transferred the money out of the Tower Hill escrow account and used the funds for personal and unrelated business purposes.
