James Brian Blaylock was one of several unregistered brokers who raised more than $20 million from investors for TKO Farms, Inc. and its affiliate Agravitae, Inc., companies that offered investors the chance to share in profits from an exotic hardwood and citrus tree farm in Belize. The pitch was picturesque: a roughly 900-acre agricultural operation near Belmopan, planted with tens of thousands of fruit-bearing trees and more than a hundred thousand exotic hardwood trees, marketed as the world’s largest graviola farm and a source of teak, coconuts, cacao, and citrus for global export. Between May 2017 and March 2021, TKO Farms and Agravitae raised nearly $20 million from around 200 investors. Blaylock, who was not registered as a broker or dealer, managed a center where salespeople cold called prospective investors to solicit them into the offerings. On July 21, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California entered a final judgment against him.
On July 20, 2026, the court granted the SEC’s motion for default judgment, finding that Blaylock violated Sections 5(a) and 5(c) of the Securities Act, the registration provisions, and Section 15(a) of the Exchange Act, the broker registration requirement. The final judgment permanently enjoins Blaylock from violating those provisions and from soliciting any person or entity to purchase or sell any security, and orders him to pay a civil penalty of $100,000. The default judgment reflects that Blaylock did not mount a defense to the SEC’s claims.
A Boiler Room of Cold Callers Selling Shares in a Tropical Tree Farm
The distribution engine for the TKO Farms offering was a classic boiler room operation. Blaylock managed a center where salespeople cold called prospective investors, working through lists of phone numbers to pitch the Belize tree farm investment to people who had not sought it out. Cold calling as a securities distribution method is tightly regulated precisely because it puts high-pressure sales tactics in front of investors who have done no independent research and who are hearing a scripted pitch designed to close a sale. The salespeople in Blaylock’s center, like Blaylock himself, were not registered as brokers or dealers, meaning they operated outside the oversight framework that broker registration is meant to provide. The registration requirements Blaylock was found to have violated exist to ensure that people selling securities to the public meet baseline qualification, supervision, and conduct standards. A boiler room of unregistered cold callers is the precise scenario those rules are designed to prevent.
The picturesque quality of the investment was part of what made it saleable. Investors were invited to imagine sharing in the bounty of vibrant Belizean orchards, a tangible, appealing image far removed from the mechanics of an unregistered securities offering sold by commission-driven telephone solicitors. The SEC’s original complaint alleged that substantial amounts of the money invested would be used to pay exorbitant commissions to the various unregistered brokers, a use of funds that was not what investors picturing a thriving tree farm would have expected their money to support.
A Hidden Control Person With a Criminal Record Who Spent Investor Money on His Own Restitution
Behind the tree farm stood Kenneth Dewayne Owen, whom the SEC identified as possessing undisclosed de facto control over both TKO Farms and Agravitae. Owen had a history of criminal convictions, regulatory actions, government liens, and a bankruptcy, none of which was disclosed to investors. According to the SEC, Owen controlled the companies’ financial accounts and used investor funds for personal expenses, including, notably, payments toward his own criminal restitution. Investors who believed they were funding sustainable agriculture in Belize were, in part, financing the criminal restitution obligations of a man whose control over the operation and whose criminal history had been concealed from them. Owen recruited and engaged the unregistered brokers, including Blaylock, Reynaldo Aguilar Jr., Ross Gregory Erskine, and Gilbert Allan Penhollow, to solicit investors. The concealment of Owen’s role and record was central to the fraud: investors evaluating whether to trust the offering were denied the single most relevant fact about who was actually running it.
A Default Judgment, a $100K Penalty, and a Permanent Solicitation Ban
Blaylock’s final judgment resolves the SEC’s claims against him through default, meaning the court entered judgment after he failed to defend. The $100,000 civil penalty and the permanent injunctions against future registration violations and against soliciting anyone to buy or sell any security remove Blaylock from the securities solicitation business going forward. His case is one thread in the broader TKO Farms enforcement action, which named the two issuer companies, Owen as the control person, and four unregistered brokers who solicited the investors. The permanent bar on soliciting securities transactions is the most directly protective term: it prevents Blaylock from running another cold-calling center for another offering. The nearly 200 investors who put close to $20 million into a Belize tree farm on the strength of cold calls from unregistered salespeople remain the parties who bore the cost of the scheme.
Conclusion
James Brian Blaylock ran a center of salespeople who cold called strangers to sell them shares in a Belize hardwood and citrus tree farm, part of an operation that raised nearly $20 million from about 200 investors. Neither Blaylock nor his callers were registered to sell securities. The man who actually controlled the tree farm companies had a criminal record the investors never learned about and spent their money on his own criminal restitution. Investors picturing tropical orchards were funding commissions to unregistered brokers and the restitution debts of a hidden control person. Blaylock did not defend the case. The court entered a default judgment, fined him $100,000, and permanently barred him from soliciting any securities transaction again.
