Man Pleads Not Guilty to Swindling Charges : Fraud: Mission Viejo businessman is accused of cheating his white-collar clients out of at least $150,000.

A Mission Viejo man suspected of bilking unemployed white-collar workers out of at least $150,000 through newspaper ads promising financial freedom pleaded not guilty to 21 counts of fraud on Thursday.

Prosecutors say Guido Leo DeSmet, 64, presented as many as 27 victims with a bogus but sophisticated package of high-tech plans to make money through a variety of video and marketing ventures. DeSmet, who is being held in Orange County Jail in lieu of $250,000 bail, faces up to six years in prison if convicted.

After an 18-month investigation, police arrested DeSmet on Wednesday at a fast-food restaurant in Laguna Hills as he allegedly set up another scam with a previous victim.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Joseph D’Agostino said DeSmet placed newspaper advertisements promising to help get people started in several types of business deals, from television news video-clipping services to marketing in-house corporate training videos.

“The type of victim you have here is somebody who is in a desperate situation, like a laid-off engineer, people who are very easy prey to this type of sales pitch,” D’Agostino said.

Many alleged victims set up offices and purchased furniture, stationery and business cards. When the business deals collapsed, according to the would-be entrepreneurs, DeSmet laughed in their face.

“One thing he said to me I’ll never forget,” said Calvin Alleman, 46, a Yorba Linda resident who claims to have lost $80,000 in his dealings with DeSmet. “He said, ‘I’ve run around attorneys and the police many times and they’ve never gotten me. I know they won’t be able to this time.’ ”

However, a lawyer hired by DeSmet characterized the charges as complaints made by a dissatisfied business clientele.

“Many of the people that Mr. DeSmet had business with were just unsuccessful,” said Vincent John La Barbera Jr., a Santa Ana attorney. “They’re trying to blame Mr. DeSmet for their lack of success.”

Alleman said he was pitched a direct-mail program for coupon packets. The Yorba Linda resident said DeSmet claimed to have a system to market the coupons at a greatly reduced price, using a four-color system that would greatly enhance their attractiveness.

“He had me set up an office and bought me an inexpensive computer and software program,” Alleman said. “He claimed he was part of a patented process with companies such as Xerox. He claimed he had a whole network of contract printers and that everyone in this deal was making money. It looked very legitimate.”

But, D’Agostino said, “there was no training, no coupons, no special expertise, no special four-color graphics, no mass mailings or affiliations with other companies. It looked like a fresh, imaginative business venture, but there was nothing there.”

The prosecutor said DeSmet used a private mailbox firm, Mail Boxes Etc. in Mission Viejo, for his business address. Potential clients would be met at a small office in a business complex where DeSmet had use of a receptionist and conference room shared by all the companies in the building.

D’Agostino said DeSmet has no prior criminal record. He lives with his wife and daughter in a Mission Viejo home rented by his son-in-law.

La Barbera said his client lives “the lifestyle of a middle-class person. He hasn’t made a lot of money off people. There is no money stashed anywhere.”

He added that DeSmet does have many of the contacts described to customers and many clients have made money using his business systems.

DeSmet “is a provider of information,” La Barbera said. “He doesn’t run the businesses.”

La Barbera also said DeSmet has known of the investigation for almost two years and has fully cooperated with authorities.

“If he had anything to hide, he would have been gone two years ago,” La Barbera said.