Land Sale Blocked by Payment of Back Taxes : Moorpark: Investors allegedly bilked in a fraud scheme chip in to keep the county from auctioning a 393-acre parcel.

Investors who were allegedly bilked in the largest fraud scheme in county history beat a deadline Friday and blocked the auction of almost 400 acres of land that were bought with their money.

The county had planned to auction off the Moorpark parcel Monday to collect $76,213 in property taxes due over the past five years. The sale would have been the largest tax-default auction in county history.

However, a group of investors stopped the auction by delivering a cashier’s check to the county tax collector at 1:30 p.m. Friday, just 3 1/2 hours before the deadline.

Ten of the 140 people who invested in the 393-acre parcel paid the overdue taxes.

Investors had pleaded with county officials to delay the auction, saying their best hope of recovering some of their losses would be a private sale of the property.

After county officials refused to delay it, investors threatened to file for bankruptcy to block the land sale. However, they decided later to pay the debt rather than leave the future of their investments in the hands of a bankruptcy judge.

Ventura County district attorney’s investigators say the investors were among 2,000 people who were defrauded in a series of investment schemes masterminded by Olen B. Phillips.

Phillips and two aides were indicted last month by the Ventura County grand jury on 81 counts of conspiracy to commit grand theft and securities fraud.

Investigators said Phillips and his aides sold limited partnerships in properties throughout Ventura and Los Angeles counties and then borrowed money on the land without the knowledge of the partners.

The people who invested with Phillips were told that the Moorpark property would be developed, and they would make a profit when the land was sold, according to investors. However, the land was never developed. In addition to taking loans out on the property, Phillips failed to pay property taxes, investors said.

Investors gave Phillips between $200 and $2,000, they said.

Don Thomas of Camarillo was one of the investors who helped pay the taxes. He declined to say how much money each person paid but said: “We all dug in with as much money as we could. We scrounged.”

Thomas said he had to give up a vacation with his son to pay his share.

“I’ve been doing everything to save for two years for a big game hunting trip with my son,” he said. “Now that is gone.”

Tax collector Hal Pittman said several people called about buying some of the Moorpark land. “I also had calls from people who wanted to buy the whole thing,” he said.

If the land had been auctioned, the county could have accepted a minimum bid equal to 25% of the property’s total value of $7 million. Pittman had planned to sell most of the land in parcels of about 40 acres for a minimum bid of $62,500.

The land is zoned for residential use and is near Grimes Canyon Road and Broadway.

John Trzeciak of Newbury Park said he and his wife Lois invested all their savings with Phillips. “We are hurting,” he said. “We have our life savings involved in this.”

But he said he is glad that the land will not be auctioned and that there is still a chance for him to recover some of his money in a private sale of the land.

“I feel good,” Trzeciak said.

Other investors with Phillips stopped the auction of a 3.5-acre parcel in Thousand Oaks by filing for bankruptcy, Pittman said. He said more than $111,000 in late taxes are due on the commercially zoned property.