Nearly 14 years ago, James Dickey, current RPT State Chairman, got into serious trouble with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). When this information recently came to light, some have questioned the validity or relevance of the information, given that the incident took place so many years ago. But others have maintained that it is very relevant since it gives a window into Dickey’s character. If Dickey lied to investors 14 years ago, resulting in investors losing of millions of dollars, can he be trusted to tell us the truth today? That’s an important question since he’s currently running for election at the June 14-16 Republican State Convention in San Antonio.
- According to information obtained from the SEC’s website relevant to the issue (sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/lr19631.htm), on 6/16/2004 the SEC filed a complaint against James Dickey, and his partner, for fraudulently offering and selling investment securities from three Texas-based hedge funds to investors from July 1998 through October 2001. Although the hedge funds were losing significant amounts of money (up to 90% of the funds invested), Dickey marketed the securities to investors as if the hedge funds were gaining, even after he knew that was not the case. Additionally, to gain the confidence of investors, he misrepresented that he and his partner had well-known and prominent brokerage firms as a prime broker, when in fact the funds never had a prime broker.
- Before the case went to trial in the Northern Texas Federal District Court, Dickey consented to a permanent injunction, without admitting or denying the allegations, but agreeing to an order to pay disgorgement of $85,052 plus $18,952 for prejudgment interest for a total of $104,004, representing monies received by Dickey from the hedge fund fraud. He pled poverty to the court so the repayment amount was dropped to $35,000 (He agreed to pay $10,000 within 10 days of the final judgment and $1000/month for 25 months to the Court-appointed Receiver for the case). The federal court entered the final judgment on 3/6/2006.
- Dickey’s partner did not settle with the SEC and subsequently lost in a jury trial and on appeal to the 5th Circuit so a federal district court has established the underlying facts of the charges comprising the SEC complaint which Dickey cannot deny. Part of his partner’s defense in the jury trial was that the losses were a result of the tragic events of 9/11. The court found nearly all of the fraudulent activity (all the way back to June 2000) occurred prior to 9/11.
- Dickey is not prohibited from talking about the case (as he has alleged publicly), but the court agreement that Dickey signed forbids him from denying the allegations or even hinting that they are false. Otherwise, the SEC may petition the Court to vacate (cancel) the Final Judgment and restore the case to its active docket. Some have questioned if Dickey’s actions to encourage his supporters to make such statements publicly have already violated the Final Judgment to which he agreed. (see link: http://tommechler.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Dickey-consent-to-final-judgment.pdf)
Here’s the original complaint with the facts of the case as filed by the SEC: www.sec.gov/litigation/complaints/comp18749.pdf. Here’s the final judgment: http://tommechler.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Dickey-final-judgment-of-perm-injunction.pdf
Tom Mechler served as Republican Party of Texas State Chair just prior to James Dickey. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Texas A&M University and an MBA from the Wharton Business School in Finance.
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Do-nothing but take credit Mechler quit the job mid-term. He might ought to shut up.
Typical Establishment, thanks , but no thanks. I think the conservative grassroots knows exactly who they are supporting, and it isn’t anyone Mechler is supporting.
Lots of info going around purporting to show that Ms. Asche donated $5,000. to Mr. Mechler.
Any attorney worth his salt realizes that what Dickey did is not uncommon and he did not have the problems that his partner incurred. BTW, it is documented that Mr. Dickey made an offer to pay a disgruntled investor, and did so. How how many “crooks” do that?
Seems that there are a lot of desperate people who have seen the writing on the wall and will do anything to win including digging into old dirt. Thank you Mr. Mechler for making up my mind for who to vote for and now to really work to get elected.
https://www.texastribune.org/2017/03/21/mechler-and-lobbying-questions/
Tom Mechler and his minions are supporting Asche with large donations and endorsements, which is enough for me to know that my vote will be going to James Dickey. No brainer.
Typical Dickey supporters making comments. They attack the messenger because they can’t refute the message.
Thanks to Mark for the Texas Tribune article on Mechler’s major ethical violation(s), which led to his forced resignation. In the end, Cindy Asche is a puppet candidate for liberal fmr TFRW Prez and some time RINO Toni Anne Dashiell, a big and long time Straus puppet herself. She backed Jeb Bush in the 2016 Prez primary, and when he flamed out and crashed, she would not endorse Cruz, and definitely not Trump, until he won the nomination. Robin Armstrong, RNC Committeeman, courageously endorsed Cruz from the start. This is typical of Toni Anne – liberal and desperate for powerto ingratiate herself with her friend Joe Straus. She recruited and proferred inexperienced and weak leader Rick Figueroa on us last time at the convention for RNC committeeman, and then last June in the RPT chair race in the SREC against James Dickey. Thankfully, Rick lost. Now, in order to try and knock off James this convention, Toni Anne is pushing Asche on us, with a little over half the TFRW folks in tow like moderate-liberal lemmings, supporting her. Asche has virtually no experience in key party positions, other than a women’s club presidency, and never served on SREC or as County Chair or as District Chair. What she is is the daughter of Bill Crocker, who served as a moderate-liberal RNC committeeman from 2004-12, but she is not as smooth as her Dad, having a famous very nasty temper to attack people with. PaPa Bill started as a conservative, but soon his auto dealer lawyer money nose kicked in and he rose to become RNC General Counsel, trying to kill the Texas grass roots National Delegate election process. Daddy Bill was such a disappointment as he chased the monied rich Republicans for his law practice, and mouthed and helped them pursue their moderate-liberal opinions in the RNC and SREC. So, the moderate-liberal wing will get behind Asche, but Dickey will get some of those who like his 12 months track record as Chair, not to mention conservative majority of the delegates. Like Kevin Roberts, expect to see more of the Cindy attack stuff. Same sort of negative attack consultant approach as all the attacks on here. The monied moderate-liberals in the state will pump hundreds of thousands of dollars into her campaign over the next few weeks for direct mail etc., since they desperately want to control the RPT Chair position. In the end, there is one key question you really need to ask Ms. Asche today at the forum – “would you have voted for censure of Speaker Straus the way Mr. Dickey did?”. Coming from the establishment moderate-liberals, she will evade it, since she would lose her base of support from the monied Straus loving elite, who like Toni Anne & Tom Mechler, all adore Straus’s Republican philosophy and give only lip service to the RPT platform that the delegates write. Dickey deserves re-election just on that one vote – to forever censure liberal Joe. So, for your scorecard purposes, Mechler-Toni Anne- Crocker-Asche are all supported by the monied rich moderate-liberal wing of the party, and Dickey is supported by the grassroots Liberty & Christian Coalition leaders and delegates, so you should support Dickey, unless you are a John Kasich-McCain style Republican. The choice between these two candidates is very easy. Vote Dickey.
Being in the same line of work as Dickey, it is very common for large institutions to settle out of court on litigated issues. During this era, investment firms including most banks, and insurance companies were impacted. Dickey was an employee, affected like many advisors.
We do know that Mechler and Toni Ann are prodigies of the Strauss group. And are the wings beneath Cindi Asche.
Dickey, without question is the man for the job.