Phillips’ Records to Be Audited by Attorney : Inquiry: FBI, state and county investigators are looking at the role the businessman may have had in $40-million investment fraud.

The business assets of Thousand Oaks entrepreneur Olen B. Phillips, subject of an investigation into one of the largest alleged frauds in the county’s history, have been seized on orders from a Los Angeles judge and placed under the authority of a court-appointed attorney.

Attorneys for the California Department of Corporations said Los Angeles Superior Court Judge John Zebrowski granted a temporary restraining order allowing the business assets of Phillips to be seized and scrutinized by attorney Richard Weissman.

The department requested the restraining order because “innocent investors” were in danger of losing money they had entrusted to Phillips, state officials said. Phillips is the subject of FBI and Ventura County Sheriff’s Department fraud investigations.

Phillips has not been charged with any crime despite the investigations that are continuing at the state, county and federal levels. Under the temporary order issued late Wednesday, Weissman will audit the assets and determine what they are worth. State officials said the assets could later be liquidated and distributed to investors and creditors if massive fraud is ever established.

County and state authorities say they are investigating Phillips in connection with allegations that he defrauded investors in real-estate holdings he controlled.

According to Alan Weinger, an attorney with the DOC, Phillips is suspected of embezzling about $40 million in funds from 2,000 investors. Weinger accused Phillips of using money from new investors to pay off old investors.

Weinger said the assets seized Thursday include Phillips Financial Group, Phillips Property Management, Phillips Securities Corp., The Phillips Co., Phillips General Contracting, DMV and Associates, HomesWest Realty, Westlake Mortgage Inc., Boardwalk Escrow, BWT Financial Inc., and Aero-Flight Associates and 48 limited partnerships and investments groups.

Weinger added that Weissman is also scrutinizing the holdings of Charles Francoeur and Felix Laumann, two of Phillips’ former employees.

He said that Judge Zebrowski has set an April 9 court date for Phillips to appeal the temporary restraining order. Phillips, who has declined to comment on the investigations into his activities, also declined Thursday through his attorney to make any comment on the freezing of his business assets.

But Ventura attorney Louis Samonsky Jr. said Phillips is “dealing with it in a rational way.” He said Phillips will support himself with the money he makes as a pilot for United Airlines.

An airline captain, a bank director, a church official and a philanthropist, Phillips rose steadily to a position of power as both a businessman and a civic leader in the Thousand Oaks and Westlake Village areas.

Phillips, the director of the now-defunct United Community Bank, is being investigated by the FBI in connection with a massive phony loan scheme at the bank’s subsidiary company, Westlake Thrift & Loan, which went out of business in 1988. Westlake Thrift’s former president, Steven Smith of Thousand Oaks, pleaded guilty in federal court in Los Angeles to charges of conspiracy, fraud and misapplication of bank funds in connection with the case.