State investment promoters sued
The Securities and Exchange Commission sued three California investment promoters, accusing them of cheating military families, members of the Filipino community and fellow churchgoers of about $10 million.
In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court in Riverside, the SEC said James Duncan, Hendrix Montecastro and Maurice McLeod, all of Murrieta, sold securities to about 75 people, claiming money generated from them would subsidize mortgage payments on investment homes purchased on behalf of the victims.
Instead, the agency said, the defendants operated a “Ponzi-like scheme,” making payments on the early investors’ mortgages with money from later investors until the operation collapsed, putting the homes in foreclosure and bankrupting the investors.
The government said the defendants used false loan applications to buy homes in investors’ names and targeted servicemen at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona as well as churchgoers and members of Southern California’s Filipino community.
Lawyers for Duncan, Montecastro and McLeod couldn’t be reached for comment.
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