FORT WORTH, Texas - A 33-year-old energy company landman who admitted running a scheme to defraud his employer, XTO Energy, of more than $1 million, was sentenced this morning, announced U.S. Attorney John Parker of the Northern District of Texas.
Steven E. Fisackerly, 33, of Spring, Texas, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Terry R. Means to 63 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $1,005,131.00 in restitution. Fisackerly pleaded guilty in May 2015 to an information charging one count of mail fraud. He must surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on January 4, 2016.
According to documents filed in the case, from September 2008 until March 2012, Fisackerly worked in the Fort Worth offices of XTO Energy, Inc. as a landman assigned to the Marcellus Shale wells in West Virginia. A landman is primarily responsible for all surface and mineral land-related matters for his assigned area. Among other things, a landman drafts, negotiates, and administers oil and gas leases, amendments, unit designations, assignments, domestic gas use agreements, surface leases, damage agreements, purchase and sale agreements, and similar documents, all related to oil and gas exploration. Landmen have access to and use computer systems specific to XTO, which XTO uses to map oil and gas leases, track costs related to oil and gas bonus payments, and access oil and gas leases.
Fisackerly admits that beginning in January 2009 and ending in approximately January 2011, he devised and ran a scheme to defraud XTO. He used his knowledge of XTO’s oil and gas lease process, his access to previously approved oil and gas leases and reports, XTO computer systems, Harrison County, West Virginia’s online document inquiry public records data base, and his knowledge of XTO’s oil and gas interests in West Virginia to generate bogus oil and gas leases. He also altered/falsified existing information to generate bogus documents.
In January 2009, Fisackerly selected an XTO oil and gas lease packet from a legitimate landowner, J.G. Fisackerly altered that oil and gas lease packet to show that another individual, E.C., was the landowner. Fisackerly prepared and organized the false oil and gas lease documentation under E.C.’s name and routed the lease packet to management for approval. Once approved, XTO issued bonus check for $180,402.50 to E.C. that Fisackerly obtained. That check was deposited into a bank account controlled by E.C., and E.C. wrote two personal checks, totaling $130,000, to Fisackerly from that account.
Fisackerly also created a sham company, Parallel Interests, LLC, using LegalZoom. He listed himself as the 100 percent member, stating in the formation questionnaire that the reason for creating the company was for mineral interests. Fisackerly also opened a bank account at Bank of America in December 2010 that listed Parallel Interests, LLC on the signature card and named Fisackerly as the only signer on the account.
Fisackerly also created false oil and gas leases and lease packets in the name of Paul Hinkle, President of Parallel Interests, LLC, and executed the documents with a forged notary stamp. He created fraudulent deeds and Harrison County Clerk reference numbers for supporting documentation and provided a nonexistent Post Office Box as the mailing address for the bonus checks. He organized the fraudulent documentation and approved the order of payments. He then obtained additional management approvals and routed the lease packets to XTO’s Land Department, where bonus checks for Parallel Interests, LLC were issued. From there, the bonus checks were routed back to Fisackerly, who then deposited them into the Parallel Interests, LLC Bank of America account he controlled.
During the course of the scheme, Fisackerly engaged in approximately nine fraudulent transactions, causing XTO to issue checks totaling $1,005,131.00
The U.S. Postal Inspection Service investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Nancy Larson was in charge of the prosecution.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
