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Column 1 1 Ex-Central boss to face judge 2 3 Monday, 14 March 2016[/I]
Haydn Black
TONIGHT the man accused of defrauding Central Petroleum of more than $500,000 will face the US District Court in Montana.
Column 1 Dalton Hallgren. Picture courtesy of Montana police.
In January 45-year-old Dalton Allan Hallgren, also known as Donald Hallgren Jr, pleaded not guilty to an indictment charging him with five counts of wire fraud, two counts of engaging in monetary transactions in criminally derived property and one count of aggravated identity theft.
The indictment and an arrest warrant were filed on April 17, 2015. The indictment was unsealed with Hallgren's arraignment.
He was arrested on January 8 in Germany by US Marshals, and extradited to Billings, Montana for his first court date in front of Judge Carolyn Ostby.
“From in or about November 2011 through in or about February 2013 the defendant … devised and intended to devise a scheme to defraud and to obtain money and property by means of materially false and fraudulent pretences, representations and promises,” the indictment stated.
It is alleged that Hallgren, who worked for Central from 2011 until 2013 as Central’s chief operating officer, and later acting CEO following the ousting of founder John Heugh, used a US company he registered, Alpha Oilfield Services, to siphon off money in five transactions to an account at Wells Fargo Bank he controlled as payment for an invoice allegedly owed to Alpha for $US567,302 for equipment that was never provided.
He was also accused of denying any involvement in Alpha.
Hallgren is further accused of money laundering in attempting to withdraw or transfer some of the money, and forging the signature of another person in an attempt to secure the funds.
Central filed charges against him in early 2014 claiming $543,000 plus damages.
The company also alleges that Hallgren lied about his qualifications to secure a job with the central Australia explorer, falsely saying he had a bachelor of science degree in petroleum engineering from Montana Tech of the University of Montana.
When he was appointed he was described by the company as a “well qualified manager and drilling engineer” who had in the Marcellus, Bakken, Haynesville and Barnett shale gas and shale oil plays in the US.
His experience with horizontal multi-stage fracced wells was credited with Central’s decision to drill a horizontal leg in the Surprise-1/ST-1 well, which led to the development of the Surprise oil field, the NT’s first discovery in some 50 years.
According to his LinkedIn profile, after leaving Central, Hallgren worked for four months as a senior advisor on Drillsearch Energy's unconventional resources/deep high pressure high temperature drilling program in the Cooper Basin.
He then spent a year with Frontier Oil in the Philippines, before spending a further year with Cairn Energy as its general manager operations responsible for overseeing and delivering the Integrated Drilling Project to implement a $US750 million ($A990 million) field development plan for the largest enhanced oil recovery project in the world.
Since August 2015 Hallgren's profile indicates he was managing director of a private, unnamed international oil company "owned by one of the largest privately held conglomerates in the world".
His resume was said to have included companies such as Halliburton, Burlington Resources, Encana, Hess, Marathon and ConocoPhillips, as a specialised well control engineer with Boots and Coots as well as desert experience as a captain in the US army.
If convicted, Hallgren faces a maximum 20 years in prison and a $US250,000 fine on the wire fraud charges.
His case will be heard by US district judge Susan Watters tonight.
He has pled not guilty.
The alleged con man also appears to have promised US company a success fee would be paid on any deal, up to 2% of all acquisition and capital development costs of up to $20 million, which has caused Central even more legal headaches.
Last year US-based Geoscience Resource Recovery sued Central, claiming it was owed cash for introducing the junior to Total.
GRR says in the claim that it arranged meetings with Central and several big oil companies, including Total, Norwegian oil giant Statoil, US majors Chevron and ConocoPhillips, and Marathon Oil, with a view to finding a joint venture partner for the Australian junior to help fund exploration in its vast acreage in central Australia.
Hallgren’s replacement as CEO, Richard Cottee claims he wasn't aware of GRR's role in sealing the deal with Total and has denied any wrongdoing.
End of quotation....
Now, and most importantly, who was in control of the Company, and made the appointment of DH as the Acting CEO at the time.??
Who actually made the final decision on this appointment when JH was already gone.???
Is now JH vindicated on his actions in doing a search on some of the Company's employees during and before this actually happened.??
You can derived at your own conclusion on that...
Just asking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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