SEC v. Steve G. Blasko (boiler rooms, 2017)

Judgment entered

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In July 2017 the SEC charged an oil well partnership, its founders Carol Wayland and John Mueller, two affiliated entities and three salespeople including Steve Blasko over a $2.4 million unregistered offering sold through a boiler room. On April 18, 2019 the court entered final judgments against Wayland, the partnership and entities, and the three salespeople, with injunctions and about $1.0 million in disgorgement and interest and $0.94 million in penalties. Mueller's outcome was not shown in the source.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$945k

Disgorgement

$1m

Prejudgment interest

—

Total relief

$1.9m

Alleged gain

—

A dash means the release did not state a figure we could extract, not that the figure is zero. Penalty and disgorgement are stored separately so aggregates across the library do not double-count the same dollars.

What is alleged to have happened

the Securities and Exchange Commission announced this matter on July 7, 2017 as litigation release 23876 (the case later resolved in the 2019 Wayland judgments record). The defendants named are Carol J. Wayland, John C. Mueller, the Kentucky-Tennessee 50 Wells partnership, HP Operations, LLC, C.A.R. Leasing, LLC, and salespeople Mitchell B. Dow, Barry Liss and Steve G. Blasko; the record previously listed only Mr Blasko. As alleged, from about May 2014 to February 2016 the partnership sold unregistered interests to 41 investors, raising about $2.4 million, through a boiler room operating as "Sahara Wealth Advisors" staffed by salespeople with prior boiler room experience, while investor money was misappropriated. The SEC charges antifraud, Section 5 and broker registration violations.

This library tags the matter as boiler rooms, unregistered distributions, based on the conduct the document describes. The tagging is ours, not the regulator's: agencies charge statutory provisions, not technique names.

For the regulator's own account of the facts, read the primary document linked above. This page deliberately summarises the structured record rather than reproducing the release.

Outcome: SEC litigation release LR-24542 reports that on April 18, 2019 the Central District of California entered final judgments against Wayland, the partnership (KT 50), HP Operations, C.A.R. Leasing and the salespeople Mitchell Dow, Barry Liss and Blasko. Wayland and the entities were enjoined from antifraud and registration violations, and the three salespeople from registration violations. The release gives disgorgement with interest of $528,722 (Wayland), $225,839 (Dow), $182,911 (Liss) and $67,658 (Blasko), and civil penalties of $464,665 for Wayland and $160,000 for each salesperson. The record stores the combined disgorgement-and-interest figure as disgorgement, and the sums cover those four people only. The release does not say what happened to Mueller, and it reports that Dow pleaded guilty to wire fraud in May 2019, so the criminal flag is set. Checked on 2026-10-04.

What technique is this, and how does it work?

This action is tagged with 2 techniques in our taxonomy. The tagging is ours: regulators charge statutory provisions, not technique names, so the mapping is an editorial judgement described in our editorial policy.

• Boiler rooms — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.
• Unregistered distributions — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.

Timeline

1. 2017-07-07 Litigation release published
2. 2019-04-18 Final judgments entered against Wayland, the entities and three salespeople

Primary documents

Everything on this page derives from the documents below. Where our summary and the primary document disagree, the primary document is right.

• SEC litigation release
• SEC litigation release on the final judgments (LR-24542)

The linked release is a work of the United States government and is not subject to copyright. Our summary and narrative above are our own writing.

Same matter

The library links these 2 records because they appear to concern one matter: the same lead defendant, an overlapping technique tag and close filing dates, or a shared court docket or a release that cites the other. Records are listed by date filed.

This grouping is the library's, made by matching names, techniques, dates and citations when the site is built. It is not the regulator's or a court's determination that the records are one case, and it errs towards missing a link rather than making a false one.

Related actions

Other actions in the library sharing at least one technique tag with this one.

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.