Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft’s Securities Division ordered a Nevada-based company and two executives to pay $1.6 million after defrauding seven Missouri investors.

Golden Genesis, Inc., along with the company’s founder and CEO Thomas F. Casey, and its co-owner and de facto chief financial officer, Dennis R. Di Ricco, were found to have defrauded investors, many of them retired senior citizens, by selling unregistered, nonexempt, promissory notes. They were found to have utilized an unregistered Las Vegas-based broker-dealer, Retire Happy, LLC, to sell more than $9 million of the notes.

Investors were promised high returns and were given sales materials containing false and misleading information. New investment monies were used to pay prior investors their purported returns. Additionally, Di Ricco, with the knowledge and approval of Casey, used funds to purchase stock in an unrelated company, Adomani, Inc., that had once been controlled by Di Ricco. Despite the promises of high returns, Casey ceased paying investors interest and returned only a portion of their original investment.

Missouri Securities Commissioner David M. Minnick ordered Golden Genesis, Casey and Di Ricco to pay more than $1.1 million in civil penalties, over $400,000 in restitution, interest and approximately $32,000 for the yearlong investigation.

Ashcroft urges Missouri investors to call the toll-free investor protection hotline at (800) 721-7996 or go online to www.missouriprotectsinvestors.com for more information or to file a complaint.