Commission Sanctions Promoters of Investments in E-Commerce Businesses

The Commission ordered respondents Elevated Automations, LLC, Ecomelevation, LLC, Antonio Romero and Brandon Wasoski, both from New Jersey, to pay $672,079 in restitution and a total of $70,000 in administrative penalties for their roles in selling securities to investors in connection with an automated e-commerce business.

The Commission found that the respondents, along with Robert Halverson, offered and sold securities in the form of investment contracts or profit-sharing agreements to at least 51 investors, raising a total of $723,998. However, the securities offered and sold by respondents were not registered and none of the respondents were registered in Arizona as securities salesmen or dealers.    

The Commission found Elevated Automations, LLC used an in-house sales team to contact potential investors from sales leads generated through social media, but found that Elevated Automations LLC, Ecomelevation LLC and Halverson failed to disclose to some of the investors that a portion of their investment funds would pay sales commissions. The original claimed purpose of Ecomelevation, LLC was for Halverson, Romero and Wasoski to teach people how to build online businesses through Shopify, but in actuality the investors did not have the discretion to choose the products to be sold, pick a store name, or set price points for the products.

The Commission found that Elevated Automations LLC and Ecomelevation LLC made misrepresentations of material facts and failed to disclose material facts, including misrepresenting that the e-commerce business would generate substantial daily revenue, when in fact, most of the prior investors did not receive the promised returns and the majority of these e-commerce businesses generated little to no revenue.  Additionally, the Commission found Elevated Automations LLC and Ecomelevation, LLC failed to disclose to some of the investors that a portion of their investment funds would be used to pay settlement payment to prior investors or return payments to prior investors.

In settling this matter, the respondents neither admit nor deny the Commission’s findings and agree to the entry of the consent order. All of the respondents are required to pay the ordered restitution amount jointly and severally with Robert Halverson who entered into a separate consent order in this matter.  All documents relating to this agenda item can be found in the Corporation Commission's online docket at https://edocket.azcc.gov and entering docket number S-21216A-22-0315.

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