Shell Creation Group

The multi-year investigation into what officials call the Shell Creation Group is being handled from SEC headquarters in Washington, D.C.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has sent out subpoenas, to more than 100 people and companies, and corporate records show that many of those companies tie back to a common group of Dallas-area business people.

Investors bought into an Illinois roofing business, an Oklahoma company advertising a cancer-treating nose spray and an Addison producer of a video series, Racetrack Girls Go Nutz.

At first, the shares soared on the penny stock market, a loosely regulated bazaar of small-time companies where some investors seek to buy a piece of the next big thing.

Then, after sell-offs by some lucky or well-informed investors, the stocks plunged, taking millions from the pockets of recent buyers.

The losers in such cases often blame bad fortune. But the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating whether they were victims of fax and e-mail stock scams orchestrated by a group of lawyers, accountants, brokers and consultants - many in the Dallas area.

Dallas attorney Phillip W. Offill Jr.'s law license has been suspended for conduct involving destruction or concealment of client files and concealing conflicts of interest.

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