Two North Dakotans received cease-and-desist orders from the North Dakota Securities Department after being charged with unlawful use of investor cash

Bismarck, North Dakota – A state agency has issued a cease-and-desist order against two people for allegedly selling $25 million in unregistered securities, abusing investor money, and other claims.

Michael Kuntz, the president of National Sports Opportunity Partners LLC (NSOP), a resident of Grand Forks, and Jeremy L. Carlson, a resident of Fargo and the president of Jamieson Capital Financial, have both received cease-and-desist letters, according to the North Dakota Securities Department. Kuntz and Carlson are charged with misappropriating investor funds and selling $25 million in unregistered promissory notes. According to the Securities Department, the two also have to return the investors and pay a $2.88 million fine as damages.

The Securities Department claims that the two people sold promissory notes worth $25 million in 16 distinct transactions. The Securities Department further asserts that three distinct people received payments totaling over $12 million from investors for a 10% ownership position in a non-profit company and were connected to Legacy Sports USA.
The Securities Department claims that in another case, investor funds totaling over $7.5 million were utilized to pay upfront commissions to unlicensed money brokers and affiliates in order to get multimillion-dollar lending commitments. The agency claims that $2.5 million in NSOP investor funds were transmitted to businesses in China, returned to the account, and then wired to brokers who were based in Las Vegas from Carlson’s Jamieson Capital Finance bank account.

“The Department also alleges Kuntz and Carlson misappropriated investor money by using money raised from later sales of the unregistered NSOP promissory notes to repay in full and/or make interest payments to earlier NSOP investors in a Ponzi-like manner.” According to the North Dakota Securities Department, Kuntz utilized investor funds to fund the alternative financing fraud scheme while returning some of the funds to Carlson, who is suspected of using them to pay off personal debts and buy a lake house and a boat.

According to the statement, the North Dakota Securities Department and “other authorities” are conducting an inquiry into the behavior of Kuntz and Carlson.