Countywide : Phillips’ Firm Image Described at Trial

A representative for a pension plan that lost $900,000 through an alleged massive real estate investment fraud in Ventura County told jurors Thursday that he knew the lead defendant, Olen B. Phillips, for a decade and that Phillips’ real estate investment operation exuded a prosperous image.

Arlon Enmeire of San Clemente, called by the county prosecutor to testify on the second day of one of the biggest fraud trials in county history, said he first met Phillips in 1982 at an investment meeting of the California Baptist Foundation, to which Phillips was twice elected president.

Additionally, Enmeire testified, he served on the board of the now-defunct United Community Bank of Thousand Oaks with Phillips between 1986 and 1989.

The FBI has been investigating what role, if any, Phillips played in the collapse of the bank in 1988.

FBI officials have declined to comment on the investigation, which is not connected with the current trial of Phillips in Ventura County Superior Court.

Phillips, 52, who still lives in Ventura County, and Charles Francoeur, 35, of Agoura, were indicted last year on charges of grand theft, securities fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud. Twenty-one investors allege in the indictment that they lost almost $3 million through real estate investments placed by Phillips’ firm.

Enmeire represented the Texas-based Accelerated Christian Education Inc. pension fund, which, in 1989, invested in three trust deeds through the Phillips Financial Group of Agoura Hills.

The pension fund purchased three $300,000 trust deeds, one on an office building in Thousand Oaks and two others on land in Port Hueneme and Moorpark.

“I was providing investment advice” for the foundation, Enmeire said in the courtroom of Ventura County Superior Court Judge Frederick A. Jones.

Then, throughout the 1980s, Enmeire said, “I was aware investments were available” in Phillips’ real estate ventures.

“I was receiving flyers on an ongoing basis from Phillips’ companies,” he said.

Under questioning from Deputy Dist. Atty. Rebecca Riley, Enmeire said he had trust and confidence in the Phillips organization. When asked if Phillips’ companies exuded “an image of success and prosperity,” Enmeire replied, “very much so.”

The trial was recessed until Tuesday.