Grand Jury Indicts Irvine Man in Alleged Mail Fraud Scam

A federal grand jury indictment unsealed Monday charges an Irvine man with 15 counts of mail fraud stemming from an investment scheme, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

Allan H. Mawhinney, 64, is accused of bilking more than a dozen friends and business associates of $765,000 by falsely promising to invest their money with Fidelity Investments, a mutual fund company, Assistant U.S. Atty. Deirdre Z. Eliot said.

Instead, Mawhinney used some of the money to finance a lavish lifestyle and put some into his own mutual fund accounts, officials said. He drew up phony account data that he used to fool the investors into believing their money was safe, Eliot said.

Mawhinney, who could not be reached for comment, faces up to 75 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted of all charges, Eliot said. Mawhinney was arrested over the weekend and a federal court arraignment will probably be held in the next week, the federal prosecutor said. It was not immediately known if Mawhinney had retained counsel, she said.

“According to the indictment, he basically won the confidence of personal friends and business associates and the pitch was always the same,” Eliot said, adding that investors were promised a high rate of return.

The scheme unraveled when an investor called the company and learned that the investment firm had no record of her account, Eliot said.

“The statements looked quite real,” Eliot said, adding that the scheme dated back to 1989. “It took them a while to really believe what was going on.”

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service in Santa Ana investigated the case, Eliot said.