Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Businessman’s Operations Placed in Receivership : Courts: Monthly payments were allegedly demanded from unwitting investors after a temporary restraining order was issued.

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge Monday placed in receivership the operations of a Westside businessman who allegedly had continued to collect $50,000 each month from unwitting investors who bought Antelope Valley property that was virtually worthless.

Marshall Redman and nine co-defendants--all named in a civil suit filed Jan. 31 that seeks at least $3.5 million in victim restitution--have continued to demand monthly payments from at least 227 alleged victims. They allegedly did that even after Judge Robert O’Brien issued a temporary restraining order to halt operations, according to a statement issued by the Los Angeles city attorney’s office.

Last week, the judge signed a preliminary injunction to replace the temporary restraining order, the statement said.

On Monday, O’Brien appointed receiver Donald W. Henry to oversee the defendant’s business affairs. Henry will be responsible for protecting the defendant’s assets, and identifying monies that may have been illegally spent by one of three companies that Redman owned, the release said.

The city attorney’s office had requested receivership in late February after discovering that the money collections were continuing and that the defendants had spent $3 million from the allegedly illegal sale of more than 400 parcels of land in the Antelope Valley. City Atty. James Hahn referred to Redman’s operation as a “classic Western land swindle.”

According to Hahn’s office, Redman, 65, of Beverly Hills, and his associates used ads that ran on Spanish-language TV to prey on “a population that was vulnerable, people who don’t speak English.”

Redman and his associates operated offices in the 11400 block of Santa Monica Boulevard under the names Marshall Redman & Associates, Redman Investment Co., and Del Sol Properties Inc. Prosecutors allege that those companies preyed on mostly Latino investors who thought that they were purchasing developed land parcels in northern Los Angeles County.

In reality, the properties they purchased are worthless desert land in areas where zoning laws prohibit development. In some cases, the parcels turned out to be located in Kern and San Bernardino counties, and in other instances, the same parcels were sold to more than one investor, the release said.