Michael O. Pickens up in smoke, accused of growing marijuana.
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20, 2005, 2:56PM
T. Boone Pickens' son faces fraud, drug charges
Associated Press
WICHITA FALLS — A well-known oil tycoon's son has been charged with securities fraud and also is accused of growing marijuana.
Michael O. Pickens, 51, son of T. Boone Pickens, was taken into custody Monday by FBI agents on federal charges of securities fraud in an indictment out of New York, said Lori Bailey, an FBI spokeswoman in Dallas.
After appearing before a federal judge in Wichita Falls, Michael Pickens was released on a $10,000 personal recognizance bond, court officials said. He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
Michael Pickens also was arrested Saturday by Montague County sheriff's deputies, who said they found marijuana plants after responding to a domestic disturbance call at his home in Nocona, 45 miles east of Wichita Falls.
T. Boone Pickens started his career in the 1950s as a petroleum geologist, built his reputation in the following decades as the founder of Mesa Petroleum Co. and gained fame in the 1980s with attempts to take over major oil companies.
Although he lost control of the debt-ridden Mesa in the 1990s, the elder Pickens is riding high again as the chairman of BP Capital Management, a billion-dollar hedge fund focused on energy commodities and equities that has delivered mammoth gains.
In 2002 his company Mesa Water Inc. obtained water permits in the Texas Panhandle to sell to downstate communities with growing populations — a plan that has not yet happened. Many locals were furious about the venture, claiming that their resources were being stolen from under them. |
