Seal Beach woman sentenced to nearly three years in investment scheme

A federal judge has sentenced a Seal Beach woman to 2 years and 11 months in prison for running an investment scheme that cheated about 45 victims out of $1.4 million, according to authorities.

Karen Hanover, 48, promised investors 100% return on their money if they invested $19,000 to $29,000 to purchase commercial real estate, federal prosecutors said in an announcement about Friday’s sentencing.

She also promised to return victims’ money if the investments didn’t pan out, prosecutors said.

Hanover ran the scheme out of two Long Beach companies, Commercial Investment Education LLC and Kharmic Life Strategies Inc., which she used to host seminars to pitch her “Fast Track” real estate program, according to authorities.

Hanover has admitted her promises to investors were a farce, prosecutors said. She pleaded guilty last year to one count of mail fraud and is to appear at a restitution hearing in May to determine how much she must repay her victims, according to prosecutors.

This isn’t Hanover’s first conviction related to the real estate scheme.

In 2011, authorities arrested her at Fashion Island in Newport Beach on charges of impersonating a federal agent. When victims caught on to Hanover’s scam, she started pretending to be an FBI agent and threatening them with prison if they revealed the fraud.

Hanover would phone them, using a website to alter her voice and making the victim’s caller ID show she was dialing from an FBI office, prosecutors said.

Later that year, a jury found her guilty, and a judge sentenced her to six months in prison, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.