‘Whale whisperer’ charged in alleged $3.3 million scam
Paul Gilman dubbed himself a “whale whisperer,” producing and starring in a documentary about using music as a universal language to communicate with the great leviathans of the deep.
But the Securities and Exchange Commission alleges he used his purported expertise in soundwaves to finance a lavish lifestyle by scamming roughly $3.3 million from about 40 investors in California, Georgia, New York, Tennessee and Texas.
Gilman was charged with federal securities law violations in a civil court complaint filed Monday in Dallas.
“Mr. Gilman believes that the evidence will show that the subject technology was being developed and continued to be developed. Therefore, he had no intent to defraud anyone,” defense attorney John Teakell said.
The court filing portrayed Gilman as a self-proclaimed “music visionary’ who “launched a series of largely unsuccessful business ventures in the sound and music industry.”
An online film festival listing for Gilman’s Ocean Odyssey described the documentary as an “awe-inspiring film” that joins Gilman in his quest to communicate through music with other intelligent life on our planet.”
The SEC alleged he used his self-described expertise to raise money from investors for GilmanSound, a compa-
ny he claimed would use soundwave technology to optimize sound systems in sports stadiums.
Although the company began as a real business, it ultimately failed, and Gilman lied to investors about his use of their money, the SEC charged.
And while Gilman had no apparent experience in the oil and gas industry, the complaint said, he nonetheless founded Oil Migration Group and Wavetech 29. These ventures, he claimed, “would revolutionize the industry by using soundwave technology to lower the viscosity of oil and enhance water separation and purification processes involved in oil and gas exploration and production,” the complaint charged.
A nurse in Dallas, a church minister in Franklin, Tenn., and a psychology professor in Parker, Texas, were among investors who risked hundreds of thousands of dollars in Gilman’s ventures from 2013 through 2016, the SEC alleged.
However, Oil Migration Group and Wavetech 29 proved to be “fraudulent vehicles” used to solicit, receive and misappropriate the investors’ funds, the court complaint charged.
“Gilman spent substantially all of the money he raised from investors on personal expenses and other nonbusiness items, such as luxury Las Vegas hotels, restaurants, designer clothing and home furnishings, large cash withdrawals at casino ATMs” and a payment to an earlier investor in a Ponzi scheme, the court filing alleged.
The SEC complaint seeks injunctions against Gilman and his companies, disgorgement of allegedly ill-gotten gains and civil penalties.
The Wall Street regulator urged investors to check the backgrounds of people selling them investments by using the SEC’s investor.gov website.