Court Revokes Bail for Head of El Toro Investment Firm

Bail for Frederick Terrazas, head of an El Toro investment firm raided earlier this week by law enforcement agents, was revoked Friday after federal prosecutors showed that he had bought airline tickets and applied for a new passport in an apparent effort to flee the country.

Terrazas had been running BROCK International, a precious-metals investment company, while free on bail after being indicted earlier this year on 13 counts of mail fraud related to his activities at another Orange County investment company, Crandall Gem Investments.

Because of his bid to flee, Terrazas “is not someone to be trusted,” U.S. District Court Judge Edward Rafeedie said in ordering that the Costa Mesa resident remain jailed until his mail-fraud trial begins later this month.

Rafeedie refused, however, to revoke the $100,000 bail set for Terrazas’ associate, Raymond Girard. Girard, also of Costa Mesa, worked with Terrazas at BROCK and at Crandall Gem and was indicted with Terrazas in March on 13 counts of mail fraud for his activities at Crandall.

Girard and Terrazas, also know as Fred Terr, were arrested Tuesday on charges that they had violated terms of their bail in the Crandall case by leaving the state to attend an investment seminar that BROCK held in Nevada earlier in the month.

BROCK, which prosecutors said was started by Terrazas after Crandall Gem was shut down under a court order in 1985, was placed in temporary receivership after Tuesday’s raid. The raid was conducted by the Southern California “boiler room” task force, a team of state, local and federal law enforcement agents formed to crack down on abuses in telephone marketing of investments.

During the raid, which was supported by a federal search warrant, task force members were seeking evidence of fraudulent activities. No criminal charges have been filed against anyone in connection with BROCK.

But during the raid, documents were seized showing that Terrazas--who was required to surrender his passport when he was indicted in the Crandall case--had applied for a new passport, saying the old was had been stolen, Assistant U.S. Atty. Gary Lincenberg said.

The prosecutor also presented evidence that Terrazas recently bought $4,370 worth of airline tickets to London and Cairo.