FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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BALTIMORE, MD – Attorney General Anthony G. Brown announced today that his Securities Division has reached a settlement with Otis H. Jackson of Davidsonville, Maryland, and his two companies, Social Solutions, LLC (Social Solutions) and SITO Capital, LLC (SITO Capital). This settlement is in connection with the unregistered offer and sale of securities by Jackson between 2019 and 2024. The settlement requires Jackson to pay $562,000 in restitution to 17 investors who purchased securities, in the form of promissory notes, from Jackson.
“Marylanders deserve to invest with confidence, free from fraud and deception,” said Attorney General Brown. “My Office will continue to pursue unregistered securities schemes and ensure that those harmed receive the restitution they are owed.
According to the facts in the Consent Order, to which Jackson neither admitted nor denied, Jackson solicited investors through his two companies, Social Solutions and SITO Capital, for what he called a “Social and Economic Development Program.” The program claimed to focus on developing affordable housing in the Park Heights neighborhood of Baltimore City, Maryland. In promotional materials, Jackson claimed to have relationships with non-profit organizations, private equity lenders, and local government to implement this program, which investors would help fund. Jackson executed promissory notes with investors that guaranteed a return of their principal and high rates of return. The notes described the use of investor funds for business purposes ranging from renovation of a specific property to more general uses such as “administrative purposes” or for the “acquisition and renovation of houses.”
Jackson deposited investor funds into accounts for Social Solutions and SITO Capital. Instead of using those funds for the program he described, he used the funds for personal expenses, including mortgage payments for his own home, dining out, transportation and large cash transfers to his personal accounts.
While Jackson occasionally used new investor funds to repay previous investors, by and large, investors did not receive any return on investment or repayment of their principal. Jackson did not disclose any risks to investors, including the risk of losing their investment funds, and only emphasized the profits they would be making. Jackson also did not disclose that many of the properties he claimed to own were in fact subject to significant tax and mortgage debt and, in at least one instance, a property had been sold at auction after Jackson failed to pay taxes on it.
Under the Consent Order, Jackson, Social Solutions, and SITO Capital have been barred from the securities and investment advisory business in the State of Maryland and have been ordered to pay $562,000 in a civil penalty for violations of the Maryland Securities Act, which will be distributed as restitution to investors.
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