Law enforcement officials in Texas and New York arrested Josh Cohen of Vision Oil & Gas on Friday, charging the Texas oilfield executive with theft and engaging in organized crime, Reeves County District Attorney Sarah Stogner said.
Stogner, whose West Texas office assisted in the arrest in Nassau County, New York, said her team investigated the case involving over $300,000 in stolen services.
She began investigating the case after alleged victims shared their experiences online.
“There’s a fine line in the boom-or-bust industry … between good faith, ‘got in over your head’, and a con man,” Stogner said. “If you commit crime in my counties and try to defraud my constituents, we will investigate you, and we will go arrest you, no matter where you are, regardless of county lines or state lines.”
Cohen lives in New York but operates in the Permian Basin. Cohen is being held in New York and is expected to be extradited to Texas, Stogner said.
He is charged with one count of theft of services and one count of engaging in organized criminal activity, according to arrest warrants.
Cases like Cohen’s are challenging for law enforcement in small counties, Stogner said, noting the investigation remains ongoing.
“For rural prosecutors – where most of the oil and gas operations are – they just don’t have the manpower to get into these really forensically challenging … electronic cases,” Stogner said. “It’s very time consuming.”
This story is breaking and will be updated.