Appeals court upholds convictions in oil scam

A federal appeals court has upheld the convictions of two men who ran an oil-and-gas drilling scheme in which investors lost millions of dollars. The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals found no mistakes in the handling of the cases of 51-year-old former attorney Bryan Coffman and 60-year-old Tennessee businessman Gary Moss Milby. Both men were convicted in May 2011 of multiple charges of mail, wire and securities fraud. Coffman and Milby were also ordered to forfeit $33 million in cash, cars and property. During the trial that lasted nearly a month, prosecutors characterized the investments as operating like a pyramid scheme with payments from new investors being given in small amounts to longer-term investors with some people receiving no money at all.