Colorado Regulators
Target Costa Rica Tree
Investments
By James Paton, Rocky
Mountain News (Contact)
A Broomfield, Colorado,
company promoting an
alternative investment -
Costa Rican trees - has
been sanctioned for
failing to register the
offerings with
regulators.
This was the pitch: Buy
at least 25 trees at a
price of us$38.50 each.
Treebanking Inc. would
have the trees planted,
grown and harvested in
Costa Rica for teak
wood, according to state
regulators.
The company told
investors to expect an
annual return of 20% and
billed the concept as a
socially responsible
investment to help
replant the rain forest,
the state Division of
Securities said.
CEO Dan Tefft said a
lawyer had advised that
registering the trees as
securities was
unnecessary, but
regulators disagreed,
hitting him with an
order to stop selling
the investments.
Tefft said he plans to
register and hopes to
proceed with "engaging
the public in the
process of replanting." |
