Duane Slade pleaded guilty in 2013 to federal fraud charges connected to a $166 million Ponzi scheme and a separate investment fraud, and was ordered to pay $2.5 million in restitution. Beginning in September 2021, 1859 Operating, LLC, a Texas oil company, raised approximately $42.7 million from investors in at least 40 states by selling fractional undivided working interests in oil leases. The SEC says its investigation has developed evidence that the offering involved materially false statements or omissions concerning Slade‘s criminal background and his management role at the company, along with the projected production rates and investment returns of 1859’s wells and the company’s use of investor funds. On August 20, 2026, the Commission filed a subpoena enforcement action in the Northern District of Texas seeking a court order to compel 1859 Operating, five affiliated entities, and six individuals to comply with investigative subpoenas that have been outstanding since April 2024.
It is essential to state clearly what this filing is and is not. The SEC’s action is a subpoena enforcement application, not a fraud complaint. No one has been charged. The release states in plain terms that the Commission “is continuing its fact-finding investigation and, to date, has not concluded that any individual or entity has violated the federal securities laws.” The respondents are 1859 Operating, LLC; Centerfire Consulting, LLC; DMMD Marketing, Inc.; DM Sales Consulting, Inc.; The Slade Group, Inc.; Slade Marketing, Inc.; and individuals Adam Fieldsted, Dillon Murrow, Alison Slade, Dallin Slade, Duane Slade, and Mason Slade. Duane Slade’s 2013 guilty plea is a matter of public record. The characterizations of the 1859 offering described above are allegations contained in the SEC’s investigative filings and have not been tested in court.
8,344 Documents Produced Out of Potentially Millions
The substance of the SEC’s application is a catalogue of non-compliance. The Commission issued subpoenas to the corporate respondents and several individuals in April 2024, and to Duane Slade in July 2024, requiring the production of documents and sworn testimony. According to the application, despite extended deadlines, repeated communications, and multiple agreements to prioritize production, the respondents almost entirely failed to comply by the compliance deadlines. The specific figure the SEC cites is stark: the respondents have produced approximately 8,344 documents out of a universe that their own counsel has stated includes potentially hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of responsive documents. Settlement discussions paused compliance efforts for roughly a year, but the agency says that after those talks ended, respondents agreed through counsel to testimony dates and then canceled shortly before they were scheduled.
The testimony record is equally pointed. The SEC alleges that several respondents failed to appear for testimony on dates previously agreed to or scheduled pursuant to subpoenas, and that on multiple occasions over the last ten months, respondents’ counsel unilaterally canceled testimony shortly before it was set to occur. A subpoena enforcement action is the tool the Commission reaches for when an investigation has stalled because the people it is investigating will not turn over what the law requires them to produce. Filing one publicly, naming every entity and individual involved, is itself an escalation.
A Family Structure and $17 Million Through a Marketing Company
The SEC describes 1859 as a family-run operation, and the web of respondent entities reflects that. Duane Slade’s sons, Dallin Slade and Mason Slade, serve or have served as managing members of 1859 and own DMMD Marketing, Inc., which according to the agency received more than $17 million in investor funds and routed most of it to other respondent entities. Dallin Slade owns The Slade Group, Inc. Mason Slade owns Slade Marketing, Inc. Adam Fieldsted owns Centerfire Consulting, LLC. Dillon Murrow, who is Duane Slade’s son-in-law, owns DM Sales Consulting, Inc. Each of those entities received payments the SEC has traced to investor funds. Duane Slade himself is not identified in public records as a manager or member of 1859 Operating, which is the point of the SEC’s stated interest in his management role and what investors were told about it.
The financial trail the SEC describes, from investors into 1859 and then outward through a marketing company into a series of consulting and marketing entities owned by family members, is the kind of structure that investigators examine closely in offering cases, because it determines how much of the money raised actually reached the wells investors were funding. That question is precisely what the unproduced documents would answer, and it is why the Commission is asking a federal judge to compel their production.
Fractional Working Interests, 40 States, and a Chapter 11 Filing
The product 1859 sold was a fractional undivided working interest in oil leases, a direct participation arrangement in which an investor buys a share of the revenue and costs of specific wells rather than shares in a company. Working interest offerings are securities, and they have long been a focus of SEC and state enforcement because they are frequently sold to retail investors on projections of production and return that are difficult for a buyer to verify independently. 1859’s own marketing described monthly distributions to investors after expenses and a technology-first approach to drilling conventional wells in the Chicon lake reservoir. The company was established in 2022, according to its website, and holds operator registration with the Railroad Commission of Texas. In November 2024, 1859 Operating LLC filed a voluntary petition for Chapter 11 bankruptcy under Subchapter V in the Western District of Texas. The SEC’s guidance on oil and gas investments specifically warns investors about offerings sold on exaggerated production projections and about promoters whose backgrounds are not disclosed.
Conclusion
Duane Slade pleaded guilty in 2013 to fraud charges tied to a $166 million Ponzi scheme. Since September 2021, 1859 Operating raised $42.7 million from investors across at least 40 states selling fractional interests in oil leases, with his sons as managing members and family-owned entities receiving payments traced to investor money. The SEC has been trying since April 2024 to get documents and testimony about what investors were told, including about Slade’s criminal history and his role at the company. It has received 8,344 documents out of what the respondents’ own lawyers say could be millions, and has watched scheduled testimony canceled repeatedly over ten months. So on August 20, 2026, it asked a federal court to make them comply. No one has been charged, and the SEC has not concluded that anyone violated the law. It is asking for the records that would let it decide.
