Federal prosecutors allege a 66 million dollar scheme built on steel deals tied directly to the oil and gas pipe trade.
Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York have charged Derek Wachob, 53, the chief executive of a Sapulpa, Oklahoma-based steel pipe manufacturer, Paragon Industries, with a single count of wire fraud in connection with an alleged 66 million dollar scheme. An indictment unsealed on November 18 alleges that, from October 2022 through August 2024, Wachob orchestrated a fraud that targeted individual investors, a bank, an investment firm, and at least two steel pipe distributors.
According to the indictment, Wachob solicited funds by pitching what appeared to be straightforward steel purchase opportunities. He allegedly told investors that their money would be used to buy discounted steel through a separate entity, that the steel would be quickly resold at a profit and that his pipe company would purchase any unsold inventory. Prosecutors say these assurances were false or misleading, and that his company’s role in backing the deals was misrepresented…