CURRAN'S SECURITIES DIVISION BARS ALLEGANY CO. MAN

Attorney General J. Joseph Curran, Jr. announced today that his Office's Securities Division issued an order permanently barring Rodney L. Hinkle, a resident of LaVale in Allegany County, Maryland, from the securities and investment advisory business in Maryland, and fining him and his companies, Money Systems, LLC and Energy Resources, Inc. $100,000 each.

Hinkle, who was popular among clients for hosting all-expenses paid dinner seminars at local hotels and restaurants – a platform for his investment sales pitches – already was subject to a July 2002 order imposing a four-year bar from the securities and investment advisory business based on his sales of cash transaction machines

Despite the earlier order, Hinkle again sold interests in CTMs. In addition, he engaged in fraudulent sales of interests in his own companies. Hinkle pooled that money in money market accounts under his control and used subsequent investors' monies to pay promised returns to earlier investors. Hinkle victimized Marylanders, Pennsylvanians and West Virginians through these schemes. In at least one case, Hinkle sold a widow who relied upon Hinkle to assist her in making financial decisions an investment in Energy Resources, without disclosing that he was the principal of that company. That same investor trusted Hinkle to invest in excess of several hundred thousand dollars – the proceeds from her husband's life insurance policy at her husband's death – in other deals. The investor suffered 100 percent losses on those investments.

Hinkle maintains an office in LaVale, Maryland; he also resides in Jupiter, Florida.

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