Can a Farm of Hardwood and Citrus Trees be a Security?

By Doug Cornelius on August 14, 2026

Are you new here? The Howey case on the definition of security was about an orange farm in Florida. The Securities and Exchange Commission’s case against TKO Farms and James Brian Blaylock caught my attention because of this mirror of the Howey case.

I missed this case back in 2022 when the complaint was filed. On May 6, 2022, the SEC filed a complaint alleging that Mr. Blaylock and others raised more than $20 million from investors through securities offerings to share in profits generated by an exotic hardwood and citrus tree farm located in Belize.

This week, the SEC obtained a default judgment against Mr. Blaylock. I went back to the complaint to see if there was an interesting securities law question.

There wasn’t.

Blaylock was running a boiler room operation. Phone solicitors would ask if the potential investor was accredited. They sent offering memoranda, the sent subscription agreements, and they filed Form Ds for the offering. Clearly, it was a securities offering.

Mr. Blaylock was charged with being an unregistered broker. His defense was largely to ignore the SEC. He claimed to have not received notice the lawsuit or proceedings.

“However, the SEC personally served Mr. Blaylock with the summons and Complaint on May 25, 2022, at the Folsom State Prison’s Minimum Support Facility.”

It looks like he was serving time after being convicted in a previous investment fraud scheme. Mr. Blaylock had convinced country club friends into investing millions in a real estate investment fund. Mr. Blaylock claimed the investments were risk free and secured. Investors eventually learned that his business had no income or assets and there were no trust deeds to be found.

I was enticed by the lure of an interesting twist on securities law. I just found a serial fraudster instead.

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