REAL ESTATE

Orange County Investment Firm Disappears: Anxious investors who have bought millions of dollars’ worth of notes issued by a once-thriving Orange County real estate development firm have been besieging police in Newport Beach and Irvine after the company, Newport Pacific Corp., abruptly shut its doors and stopped sending out monthly interest payments. The company, which once built as many as 2,000 apartments a year in Orange County, closed July 18. Its owner, Magdy Hanna--a figure in the conflict-of-interest scandal that cost Orange County Supervisor Don Roth his job in 1993--apparently has dropped from sight. As recently as May, however, Newport Pacific was selling $100,000 investments in its notes, and promising to pay 10.125% interest, as part of a $12-million debt offering.