Martinson

At the behest of the Commissioner of the Department of Corporations (Commissioner), the Attorney General instituted a civil action against defendants Earl L. Martinson and Albert N. Baxter, among others, for both injunctive relief and disgorgement of commissions arising out of the sale of certain unqualified securities. After a court trial in which defendants appeared in propria persona, a judgment was entered enjoining them from selling the securities in question and decreeing that Martinson and Baxter be required to disgorge their sales commissions of $230,000 and $1,500 respectively. The judgment further ordered that the commissions be deposited in a trust fund to be disbursed to investors who had purchased the securities. This appeal by Martinson and Baxter follows. We affirm.

The facts are not in dispute and may be briefly summarized as follows: During the 1977 oil crisis, defendants engaged in a national program to sell subleases in coal fields located in Wyoming. The subleases were sold by various corporations which promised investors that not only would the coal fields provide them a return on their investment, but also sizeable tax benefits. Nationally, some…