Another Suit Filed Against Ex-Developer

Hal A. Tobin, the beleaguered former Huntington Beach developer who allegedly defrauded investors of nearly $60 million, has been hit with a third civil suit in Orange County Superior Court.

Tobin, who lives in a gated Rancho Mirage golf club community but filed sworn statements in a federal securities fraud case late last year asserting that he is penniless, was sued Thursday by Robert and Susan Hansen, who say they were defrauded of $1.2 million.

The Hansens, who also sued on behalf of family and individual trusts, invested that amount in more than 20 Tobin development programs in 1994 and early 1995, said Michael Harrington, an associate of Emeryville attorney James Jay Seltzer, who is handling all of the suits against Tobin.

Harrington said the prior suits were consolidated into a single action this summer and that the Hansen suit likely will be bundled into the same case. That would bring to $25 million the total damages being sought by more than 80 alleged victims of the Tobin operation.

Tobin, 57, recently consented to a $3.75-million judgment in a federal securities fraud suit. While not admitting wrongdoing, Tobin agreed to an order barring him from violating securities laws. The $3.75-million fine was waived when Tobin filed sworn statements that he was broke.

The civil suits, like the federal case, allege that Tobin, through his Tobin Investment Corp. in Huntington Beach, raised as much as $60 million from more than 300 investors by promising to use their funds to build housing developments in Southern California and Nevada. Instead, the government and the civil suits allege, Tobin used the money to pay the costs of other developments or to pay interest to other investors.

The civil suits are in part an attempt to find a Tobin associate with funds to cover the claims if Tobin is insolvent. The Hansen suit names as additional defendants 38 individuals and businesses that served over the years as Tobin advisors and associates.