Jackson Jambalaya

The Oxford Springs development will have a new owner - the Securities & Exchange Commission.  Receiver Alysson Mills will take over the project as part of a settlement reached with the First National Bank of Clarksdale in the Lamar Adams Ponzi scheme case.
 The SEC is trying to claw back illegal profits earned by Lamar Adams and  promoters of a $164 million Ponzi scheme based on phony timber investments.   Receiver Alysson Mills represents the SEC. She will recover assets, distribute them among the victims, and provide progress reports to the court.  Mills sued  to recover over $16 million in commissions from several "promoters". The promoters allegedly helped Adams sell his phony timber investments to unsuspecting investors. Adams is currently incarcerated in federal prison after he pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud.   The case is assigned to Judge Carlton Reeves.

Adams used some of his ill-gotten gains to fund developments in Oxford and Starkpatch.  Patrick Sands and Lamar Adams created Oxford Springs, LLC in Delaware.   Mr. Sands is a member of the Hunt family in Dallas.  They obtained two loans for $5.2 million from the bank in 2015 and 2016.  The development was used as collateral.



Oxford Springs was supposed to be a swanky development covering  2,600 acres.  The project included an equestrian center, golf course, town centre, and a 200-acre lake.

Ms. Mills said FNBC is likely to be a future defendant in the Lamar Adams case.  Her motion to approve a proposed settlement states:

In exchange for the Receiver’s release of any claims against FNBC arising from FNBC’s alleged role in the Madison Timber Ponzi scheme (which FNBC denies) and a channeling injunction, FNBC agrees to make a cash payment of $4,000,000.00 to the Receiver and to provide the Receiver with a 60 day “Tender Period” from the “Effective Date” of the Settlement Agreement during which the Receiver may satisfy all outstanding loans by FNBC to Oxford Springs, LLC (“Oxford Springs”), on which $4,552,113 is currently owed, by making a lump sum payment of $4,000,000.00 to FNBC

The value of the proposed settlement to the Receivership Estate is far greater than the $4,000,000.00 cash payment by FNBC and the 60 day “Tender Period” within which the Receiver may satisfy all outstanding loans by FNBC to Oxford Springs, on which $4,552,113 is currently owed, by making a $4,000,000.00 payment to FNBC, as it will result in the Receivership Estate’s owning a 100% interest in Oxford Springs and retaining all of the proceeds from the future sale of Oxford Springs’s property...

The Receiver also threw out this little tidbit:

The Receiver is also mindful that the proposed settlement with FNBC is the first with a party who was not a recruiter for Madison Timber. The Receivership Estate has many claims, filed and to-be-filed, against third parties.

She described Sands as a Madison Timber investor who lost his investment.   Sands and Adams each owned a 47.5% stake in the Oxford Springs project while Michael Billings owned 5%.

Sands agrees to give up his share of Oxford Springs as well as his Madison Timber investment claim in exchange for the bank's release of his guarantee of the loan.   Billings agreed to give his interest to the Receiver.