Disclosure
To Whom It May Concern,
I appreciate your interest in Puleo Energy and do not take it lightly that you are considering us as a potential partner. I believe in being brutally honest with our customers and it is the reason that we have been able to be successful and have hundreds of trusted, authentic customer relationships. To continue on this path of honesty, I feel it is important to disclose a big mistake I made when I was in my early twenties.
I entered the energy business in 2010 at the age of 23. In 2011, I co-founded Coastal Energy Consultants LLC, an energy brokerage firm. In 2012, the company began taking limited power of attorney on behalf of our large customers to lock in energy prices at certain strike points in the market. In addition to the many accounts we transacted successfully, we misrepresented 5-6 large customers’ contracts and I committed fraud.
The strike prices were very low and we made a terrible decision to only lock in the commodity portion of the contract in order to get the deals closed and to earn sales commissions. Because the power of attorney represented that we would lock in the entire price for our customers, we misled them and committed fraud. And in fact, the un-hedged portion of the contract created a higher energy cost for those customers.
I was federally indicted in late 2013 and sentenced to 30 days in federal prison, 6 months of house arrest, 3 years of supervised release, and ordered to pay over $800,000 in restitution to those customers and several energy suppliers. A copy of the article outlining the indictment is in the following link for your review: https://www.justice.gov/usao-edpa/pr/three-charged-energy-pricing-scheme.
In 2015, after I completed my sentence of incarceration and house arrest, I inquired with State Regulators as to my options to re-enter the energy supply business. They allowed me and Puleo Energy to re-enter as a subcontractor of a licensed energy broker. From that time until the spring of 2020, we successfully contracted over 500 commercial utility accounts under that structure. In March 2020, we applied for a broker’s license with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission and disclosed these former legal matters in our application. On June 18, 2020 we were granted electricity and natural gas broker licenses. Please see our PUC Application and final license approval here by typing our electric and natural gas docket numbers into the “Docket Number” search box.
Electric Docket: A-2020-3021868
Gas Docket: A-2020-3019038
In Summary, I am very remorseful for my actions and believe I have learned a great lesson from my terrible mistake. It is important to me that you are aware of these details. I am working hard to right the wrongs of my past, pay off my debts, and build something my family and I can be proud to call ours.
You can read reference letters from some of my customers here:
Thank you,
Sam Puleo
Forward-Looking Statements
This website, various marketing materials, and electronic and verbal statements made by Puleo Energy and Puleo Energy employees or affiliates (“PE Communications”) may contain forward-looking statements, including statements regarding trends in commodity prices; demand for commodities; plans, strategies, and objectives for energy price management; anticipated natural gas production or storage numbers; electricity demand; electricity transmission rate tariffs, electricity capacity auction results; and other information not described herein.
Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of terminology such as ‘intend’, ‘aim’, ‘project’, ‘anticipate’, ‘estimate’, ‘plan’, ‘believe’, ‘expect’, ‘may’, ‘should’, ‘will’, ‘continue’, ‘annualized’ or similar words. These statements discuss future expectations concerning the results of markets, prices, or financial conditions or provide other forward-looking statements.
These forward-looking statements are not guarantees or predictions of future performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are beyond our control, and which may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in Communications. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements.
For example, future prices for natural gas or electricity described in PE Communications will be based, in part, upon the market price of production, the total amount of energy supply, and consumer demand, which may vary significantly from current levels. These variations, if materially adverse, may affect the price for either such commodity in the spot or futures markets.
Other factors that may affect the actual cost or price of electricity or natural gas include the impact of geopolitical situations; the exportation of liquid natural gas to foreign countries from the U.S.; the price and production of crude oil; and other factors that might not be identified herein.
Except as required by applicable regulations or by law, Puleo Energy does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or review any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information or future events.
Past market performance cannot be relied on as a guide to future market performance.