An Upper Marlboro, Md., man is liable for $9.4 million in restitution and another $100,000 in fines for violating Maryland’s securities laws.

The Maryland Attorney General’s Office announced that its Securities Division won the judgment against John Henry Williams in Prince Georges’ County Circuit Court earlier this month. The division charged Williams with selling unregistered securities, acting as an unregistered broker-dealer, broker-dealer agent, investment adviser and investment adviser representative, and engaging in fraud in the offer and sale of securities and investment advice.

According to officials, Williams and his companies, LaJon Companies, LaJon Capital Management, LaJon Capital Advisors and LaJon Capital Fund, used free lunch seminars to lure investors into his programs. He raised more than $9 million from more than 150 investors, mostly from Prince George’s and Montgomery counties.

Victims were told their investments were profitable, the attorney general’s office said, when most of their money was in fact lost in unsuccessful trading strategies and management fees.

In February 2007, the Securities Division and Williams entered into a consent order that found him to have committed securities fraud. The order also appointed a receiver and included a court-ordered permanent bar from the securities and investment advisory business against Williams and his four companies.

Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler said Williams has filed for personal bankruptcy, but the order for restitution to investors and fines will still need to be paid under the judgment, which will allow a claim for restitution to investors against any future assets Williams obtains.