LOS ANGELES – A previous fiscal advisor with a lengthy disciplinary history was sentenced currently to 168 months in federal prison for a authentic estate financial investment con that brought on his consumers – numerous of them aged people who experienced invested their retirement savings – to shed more than $12 million.
Paul Ricky Mata, 58, a former resident of Upland who now lives in Oceanside, was sentenced by United States District Judge R. Gary Klausner, who also purchased him to fork out $12,560,385 in restitution to his victims. Mata was remanded into federal custody at the hearing’s summary.
On July 19, Mata pleaded guilty to 17 felonies: 11 counts of mail fraud, three counts of wire fraud, just one depend of producing a untrue assertion in a bankruptcy continuing, one count of concealing assets in bankruptcy, and one count of producing a fake oath and accounts in bankruptcy.
From August 2008 to September 2015, Mata brought about victims to make investments in various of his companies, such as Secured Money, Logos Actual Estate, and other ventures. Mata failed to disclose his disciplinary historical past to his victims, together with disciplinary steps taken towards him by the states of Nevada and California, a one-yr suspension and $10,000 high-quality imposed by the Economical Field Regulatory Authority (FINRA), and a 3-calendar year suspension by the Certified Financial Planner (CFP) Board stemming from a variety of sorts of misconduct, such as omitting content facts required to make other statements not deceptive.
Mata induced his victims to commit their dollars in Secured Money, a actual estate investment plan that purportedly invested in “government-backed tax liens,” “asset-backed deed certificates,” and distressed industrial and residential attributes. Mata guaranteed investors that Secured Capital’s financial commitment return produced yearly charges of 5 {797b2db22838fb4c5c6528cb4bf0d5060811ff68c73c9b00453f5f3f4ad9306b} to 10 p.c, when in simple fact, investments in Secured Cash experienced sizeable loss dangers and did not make a earnings from 2011 onward.
In its place of appropriately investing his clients’ cash, Mata made use of Secured Cash investor money to shell out his individual bills, together with a $197,000 down payment on his individual residence in Upland, financial loans to himself and to other entities he made, and $370,000 that was transferred into his private bank accounts.
“It was not only that [Mata] was an financial commitment advisor to his victims,” prosecutors argued in a sentencing memorandum. “It was that, for numerous of them, he fulfilled them as a result of church. He prayed with them, professed to share values and beliefs with them, and he acted like they have been his pals. Also, several of his victims are now retired, and/or had been in the course of action of retiring when [Mata] suggested them to enter into his dangerous investments primarily based on bogus pretenses.”
Mata also designed wrong statements on individual bankruptcy court paperwork in Oct 2016, which includes that he had not utilized any organization names in the course of the earlier 8 a long time, and that he had not submitted for personal bankruptcy security in just the prior 8 decades. In actuality, Mata had formerly filed for personal bankruptcy in June 2010.
Throughout the individual bankruptcy continuing, Mata fraudulently hid his personal home – which includes a 2008 Mini Cooper auto and a 2001 Jeep – from the governing administration and from his collectors.
At a individual bankruptcy hearing in November 2016, Mata lied when he denied that he experienced transferred anything to relatives or friends through the preceding four years. In fact, in Oct 2016, Mata transferred the 2008 Mini Cooper to his daughter, and, in August 2016, he transferred his Upland house to his wife.
In 2015, the United States Securities and Exchange Fee submitted a civil action against Mata and two organization associates, alleging that they operated the real estate scam. Later on that 12 months, the SEC received a judgment against Mata that enjoined him from violating securities regulations and ordered him to fork out $11,748,831. That exact same yr, the California Office of Business Oversight obtained a long lasting injunction towards Mata, as well as a $14 million restitution get and $6.3 million in civil penalties.
The FBI investigated this issue. The Business office of the United States Trustee offered help.
Assistant United States Attorney Sean D. Peterson of the Riverside Branch Office environment prosecuted this case.
