My Life

I started working in the oil fields in 1978 when I was 16 years old. I only attended a couple semesters of college. By 1982 I had started my own oil field production and service company. I grew my company in production volume and services and in 2002 at the direction of my CFO did a reverse merger of the company into a shell corporation (for reasons stated below I am not disclosing the name of the company, but I will call it “Energy Company”). Energy Company was a publicly traded company. The Energy Company grew very quickly and by early 2008 (less than six years) had an enterprise value of $652M with development (drilling) rights to over 130,000 acres. 

As a small business owner, prior to the merger, I often borrowed monies (line of credit or LOC) from and loaned money to my private companies as needed. When I did the reverse merger, this LOC was rolled into the public company along with the assets with the understanding from the company CFO that the LOC arrangement was grandfathered in. Unfortunately, as an alcoholic, I made some bad personal financial decisions and the borrowing grew to $10M. 

The Energy Company was growing quickly but was also highly leveraged and, in the fall of 2008, when natural gas went from $13 to $3 the company was stressed. The company needed liquidity and I was asked to repay quickly but was unable to quickly liquidate enough assets to repay the LOC in full. A whistleblower contacted the government, an investigation was conducted, and I resigned as CEO. After my resignation civil and criminal charges were brought against me. I was convicted of one count of filing a false Sarbanes-Oxley Certificate and sentenced to 108 months in prison. The company CFO was also convicted for this and for receiving kickbacks that I was proven to not be aware of, he received a 17-year sentence which he is still serving. 

I reported to prison in January 2011. After serving a little over 3 years in federal prison I discovered (I practically lived in the law library) that my sentence was not proper (improper wording of the quickly passed Sarbanes Oxley law) and began the process of getting my sentence reduced. I was sent back to my sentencing courthouse to be heard by a judge on my appeal. While in a holding cell I discovered that a prisoner (the leader of an extremely violent extremist group) was planning to harm the federal judge that sentenced him. With my help the US Marshalls intercepted mail from the prisoner and that fully corroborated my story. I was transferred and met with my judge. After hearing the results of my research and being appreciative of protecting the judge from harm, I was released for time served. 

To protect my and my family’s life, the Federal Government ‘under federal seal’ sealed the case and my identity change, inclusive of a new social security number, passport and change of name. I was told I was under no legal obligation to disclose this to anyone and further if I did there would be consequences. 

It’s been over 10 years and I am now disclosing this here but would ask that you respect my privacy for the safety of my family and myself. 

For all purposes since January 2014, I have lived as Jerry Ross. I moved my family and myself to California because the prisoner and his network knew where I was from. 

The events of my past are bittersweet. While I regret and am ashamed of my behavior as an alcoholic, I am proud of my recovery. I went to 90-day inpatient treatment in 2009 and have been sober for over 15 years. The events of my past literally saved my life. There would be no Botanic Tonics, there would be no Feel Free, there would be no helping other people through life had I not traveled the long, strange path I took. 

Sincerely, 

JW Ross