Not only are the management straight from central casting but Northern Oil sold interests in approximately 90 wells (a quarter of the wells they were ever involved in) to a mysterious company called Ashwood Resources.
Ashwood it appears has no other function that to buy properties from Northern Oil and to manage those properties.
So it was a surprise to me and to others when Brittany Reger - wife of Northern Oil CEO Michael Reger - was the contact officer for Ashwood Resources.
Can you say conflict of interest?
Anyway Michael Reger offered two defenses. First whilst the lease interests sold to Ashwood were numerous they were tiny - sometimes as small as half a percent interest in individual wells. The second defense was that Ashwood was not a related party and his wife's job was appropriate. He even said the company sought the advice of outside counsel on that matter.
Ashwood may have been founded by a hairdresser - but was - it seems - controlled by Jacob Schaffer - a realtor in Minneapolis. It was not - according to Michael Reger - related in any way (other than by his wife's employment) to Northern Oil or the Reger family.
Which leads me to the website www.ashwoodresources.com. The site is dead - but the registration lives on.
When I first started looking at Northern Oil here were the registration details for Ashwood:
Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: ASHWOODRESOURCES.COM
Created on: 01-Mar-10
Expires on: 01-Mar-12
Last Updated on: 02-Mar-11
Administrative Contact:
Cross, Tyler tcash11@gmail.com
1821 Poly Dr.
Billings, Montana 59102
United States
(406) 749-1911
Technical Contact:
Cross, Tyler tcash11@gmail.com
1821 Poly Dr.
Billings, Montana 59102
United States
(406) 749-1911
Domain Name: ASHWOODRESOURCES.COM
Created on: 01-Mar-10
Expires on: 01-Mar-12
Last Updated on: 02-Mar-11
Administrative Contact:
Cross, Tyler tcash11@gmail.com
1821 Poly Dr.
Billings, Montana 59102
United States
(406) 749-1911
Technical Contact:
Cross, Tyler tcash11@gmail.com
1821 Poly Dr.
Billings, Montana 59102
United States
(406) 749-1911
Billings Montana is 840 miles from Minneapolis and from the Realtor who owns Ashwood. But strangely enough it is the Reger's home town.
Coincidence? Maybe.
Then a few weeks ago the registration for the domain name changed.
Registrant:
Domains by Proxy, Inc.
DomainsByProxy.com
15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States
Domain Name: ASHWOODRESOURC
Created on: 01-Mar-10
Expires on: 01-Mar-12
Last Updated on: 02-Mar-
Administrative Contact:
Private, Registration
Domains by Proxy, Inc.
DomainsByProxy.com
15111 N. Hayden Rd.,
Scottsdale, Arizona
United States
(480) 624-2599 Fax
Technical Contact:
Private, Registration
Domains by Proxy, Inc.
DomainsByProxy.com
15111 N. Hayden Rd.,
Scottsdale, Arizona
United States
(480) 624-2599 Fax
Domains by Proxy, Inc.
DomainsByProxy.com
15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States
Domain Name: ASHWOODRESOURC
Created on: 01-Mar-10
Expires on: 01-Mar-12
Last Updated on: 02-Mar-
Administrative Contact:
Private, Registration
Domains by Proxy, Inc.
DomainsByProxy.com
15111 N. Hayden Rd.,
Scottsdale, Arizona
United States
(480) 624-2599 Fax
Technical Contact:
Private, Registration
Domains by Proxy, Inc.
DomainsByProxy.com
15111 N. Hayden Rd.,
Scottsdale, Arizona
United States
(480) 624-2599 Fax
Tyler Cross - the original contact on the registration for Ashwood Resources almost certainly knows who the underlying owner of Ashwood is. I have tried contacting him.
I got no response.
Anyone got any other ideas for getting to the bottom of this?
Help requested.
John
The closest I could find in the SEC filings was Pinnacle Oil & Gas which operated in 2008 under the name Ashwood Acquisition in Wyoming. It was run by a guy named Shawn Pecore who has an eclectic list of companies associated with him.
ReplyDeleteSEC link:
http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?company=ashwood&match=&CIK=&filenum=&State=&Country=&SIC=&owner=exclude&Find=Find+Companies&action=getcompany
EDGAR online people search link:
http://google.brand.edgar-online.com/PeopleFilingResults.aspx?PersonID=3826906&PersonName=SHAWN%20PECORE
Probably a blind alley but might be useful.
I am trying to leave a comment on the blog but for some reason Blogger wants me to sign up to create a frigging blog before it will publish using my Google Account.
ReplyDeleteF### that.
My suggestion was to call his dad Frank on 406-252-4152.
I don't want to comment anonymously but blogger/google has forced me to.
Sorry.
http://picasaweb.google.com/tcash11
ReplyDeleteNot sure if you can recognise anyone from central casting in these...
Streetview makes Tyler's address look very residential..
ReplyDeleteThis is hilarous. Walm, I'm sure John appreciates your help.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that Frank & Kathy Cross may be the parents of Tyler Cross.
ReplyDeleteIt also appears that Frank & Kathy Cross go to the same church as the Regers, as a search of these documents reveals:
http://www.sjlm.org/pdf/EchoesJuly2005.pdf
http://www.billingscatholicschools.org/UserFiles/File/ThankYous2011.pdf
In fact, the first document shows that both Deborah Reger (wife of James Randall 'Randy' Reger) and Frank & Kathy Cross made donations to the church in the name of the same person: Ann Schruth.
From 8-k filed after they addred all this on the CC im long and wrong, but i still dont see the smoking gun your getting at?? pluse D & T already said no change in accounting from previous so seems like they got clean bill of health from D & T see below Our management has concluded, and has confirmed with our outside legal counsel, that our agreement with this private company is not material to us and does not involve any related-party transaction. No employee, officer or member of our board of directors has any direct or indirect interest in Ashwood or any arrangement to receive any compensation in connection with the agreement or any wellbores assigned under the agreement. As such, our previous public filings properly reflect all information required to be disclosed in connection with this divestiture program.
ReplyDelete@Nemo: what can I say?
ReplyDeleteJohn gives us 4 for 4 on a bunch of Chinese frauds, and I repay him with 10 minutes of my highly skilled googling. (Which surprise, surprise turns up nothing more interesting than whatever John turned up with his likely 3 minutes of googling.)
Frankly, I think he got the better end of the deal... ;)
Here's the lawyer that gets you from the homeboys at the Billings Petroleum Club to North Dakota.
ReplyDeleteApparently, the street sweeper has dug up the documents for the creation of Ashwood Resources (http://thestreetsweeper.org/uploads/AshwoodStateRecords.pdf). Guess what? The certificato of organization is made in the state of Minnesota. Address on the certificate:
ReplyDelete1161, Wayzata BLVD E 240
Wayzata MN, 55391
So, how many miles is that from NOG?
You can't learn very much from a whois on a website, other than the general geography of the person who created the website.
ReplyDeleteIf you do a whois on Ashwood, the creator of the website (not the owner of the entity) is from Montana.
If you do a whois on the Street Sweeper, the creator of the entity is from Australia.
You should change:
ReplyDelete"sometimes as small as half a percent interest in individual wells."
to
"never bigger than 0.5% interest in the wells with the total coming to 23% of one net well"
To say otherwise is a material mis-statement of fact when you throw your 90 wells comment in there. Makes it sound like they sold a quarter of the company when it fact it was an immaterial amount. See CK Cooper's latest piece saying that the didn't get underpaid on what they sold either.
Reger's wife started working there 5 months after the transaction.
Lots of little companies exist to pick up these kind of working interests and from what I can tell you have no evidence that Ashwood hasn't bought other assets but if they didn't that's not any kind of crime.
More of your sarcasm over substance.
Mr anonymous: are you familiar with all 90 well transfers?
ReplyDeleteIf yes - can you be non-anonymous please because that is likely inside information.
If no - then how the hell can you assert that it was NEVER more than 0.5 percent of the well.
John
From their 8K:
ReplyDelete"In January 2010, our board of directors approved an arrangement whereby we efficiently divest minimal working interests in wells. In March 2010, we entered into an agreement with a private unrelated company whereby we have the option (but not the obligation) to sell minimal wellbore interests in any drilling unit where our interest constitutes less than a 0.0050 working interest in a well at any time up to and including December 31, 2011."
So you are saying this statement in a document filed with the SEC is a lie?
Well there were some wells that were sold down from single digit percentages in 0.5 percentage point lots...
ReplyDeleteYou call it what you will.
J
what a bunch of nonsense ... not impressed w/ your claims but it has given me multiple trading opportunities.
ReplyDeletenothing to see here, move along...
Any way of telling if Ashwood has transferred/sold those well interests to another party? Maybe VOG or other interesting partners?
ReplyDeleteElfOwl-
ReplyDelete1161 Wayzata Blvd E is a UPS store (they provide mail boxes among other services) approximately 1.4km from the listed NOG HQ address. I quote directly from the UPS website:
"Discover the benefits of mailbox services at The UPS Store:
-A real street address, not a P.O. Box
-A street address can provide a professional image for your business."