
The Arkansas Securities Department wants to block a Garland County businessman from discharging debts owed to his companies’ investors, charging that he intentionally misled them and then gambled away some of the money.
In November, Larry Joe Rucker filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy, which allows him to reorganize.
Rucker listed his assets at just $28,685. His claims register summary in his bankruptcy case on Tuesday showed 52 claims totaling $849,610. Several of the claims were filed by investors in Rucker’s companies.
Last month, Arkansas Securities Commissioner Susannah Marshall asked U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Richard Taylor to dismiss Rucker’s bankruptcy case or, if not, rule that Rucker’s debts owed to Arkansas investors are nondischargeable.
The ASD said in the filing that Rucker intentionally made false mis-representations “which were made for the sole purpose of deceiving the creditors.”
The ASD also had entered a cease and desist order against Rucker in February, accusing him of orchestrating investment schemes for his companies, Seatbeltguard Inc. of Malvern, which operated as Guard 4 Life, and Brady Mountain Storage Inc.
Rucker started Seatbeltguard in 2012. The company offered customers information about a driver of a vehicle, such as if the driver is wearing a seatbelt or about the vehicle’s fuel efficiency.
Rucker told KARK, Channel 4, in 2013 that he invented the product with his children in mind. If his children drive in a car with their seat belt unbuckled, Seatbeltguard would send Rucker a text alerting him, the story said.
ASD said in its cease and desist order that Rucker used Seatbeltguard’s bank account as his own personal account. “Rucker seemingly moved investor money, spent it on himself, and gambled at Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort in Hot Springs,” the order said.
Rucker raised money for his companies by selling unregistered securities and “using fraud and fraud by omission,” ASD’s order said. Rucker told potential investors that his companies were “zero risk investments and would return millions when sold,” according to ASD’s filing.
The ASD also said that Rucker left out key facts to investors, such as failing to mention that he pleaded guilty to two counts of bank fraud and aiding and abetting in 2001 and was sentenced to one day in prison and ordered to pay $22,850 in restitution
Rucker also bragged to investors that large companies and wealthy people were lined up to buy his companies, the ASD said. But that never happened.
An early sign of trouble for the company surfaced in December 2022, when the city of Batesville sued Rucker. The city said it had paid him $25,200 for services and equipment for Guard 4 Life but didn’t receive them, according to its lawsuit. Rucker agreed to settle the case in 2023.
After Seatbeltguard failed at the end of 2022, Rucker allegedly began asking investors for money for BMS, a planned storage facility, the ASD said. The ASD said it doesn’t have information that BMS ever operated as a legitimate business.
In 2023, the ASD launched an investigation into Rucker and dis-covered the “fraudulent unregistered investment scheme and unauthorized use of investment funds for personal use by Rucker,” the ASD order said.
The ASD’s investigation found few repayments to any investors in either of Rucker’s companies.
Rucker wrote in the filing that he’s unemployed. He reported his gross income in 2022 and 2023 as $18,768 each year and that it came from Social Security benefits. Rucker couldn’t be reached for comment. Rucker is represented by Matthew Black of the Dickerson Law Firm of Hot Springs.