THIS IS A REPUBLISHED ARTICLE SUBMITT BY MARK MAUPIN
Investor suspected of bilking county residents of millions
By Jennifer Squires Sentinel Staff Writer
SANTA CRUZ — The biggest fraud case in county history could get bigger.
A Santa Clara real estate investor is suspected of defrauding at least seven county residents of $17.5 million, District Attorney Bob Lee said Friday, and investigators say there may be more victims who fell prey to his scheme.
This week, the Santa Cruz County District Attorney's Office filed 103 felony counts, including burglary, forgery, embezzlement, theft and elder financial abuse against Michael J. Schneider.
According to the District Attorney's Office, Schneider, 44, solicited clients to invest in what he advertised as secure real estate loans through his company, California Plan Inc. Turns out, Lee reported, Schneider was keeping the money for himself while sending his clients phony statements leading them to believe they were earning
income from their investments.
The district attorney's investigation uncovered 71 loan transactions from 1995 through December of 2005 that were part of Schneider's scheme, Lee reported.
Lee called the scheme a "house of cards."
Schneider's company specialized in finding private money lenders to make equity mortgage loans to borrowers who were in need of money, Lee reported.
Both Schneider and his company were licensed by the Department of Real Estate as mortgage brokers.
Schneider apparently took money from one investor to pay off dividends to other investors, investigators said. He also created phony deeds or trust and approved them with a phony recording stamp, investigators said.
"Victims felt their money was secure," Lee said.
In the few cases that Schneider actually recorded a deed of trust, he wouldn't tell the investor when the loan was paid off and instead kept the loan payoff, investigators reported. To keep the investors from discovering his fraudulent acts, Schneider's company would send monthly loan payments to the investors, as if the loans were active and valid, investigators reported.
"He was stealing the retirement from hundreds of our citizens," Lee said.
Victims identified so far lost between $25,000 and $500,000 to Schneider, prosecutor Bill Atkinson said.
Investigators are still looking for the money.
Schneider, who had offices in San Jose and Sacramento, may have stolen up to $50 million from investors in Santa Cruz and Santa Clara counties, investigators said.
He was arrested on May 1 by authorities in Santa Clara County and remains in custody.
Contact Jennifer Squires at jsquires@santacruzsentinel.com.
Investor suspected of bilking county residents of millions
By Jennifer Squires Sentinel Staff Writer
SANTA CRUZ — The biggest fraud case in county history could get bigger.
A Santa Clara real estate investor is suspected of defrauding at least seven county residents of $17.5 million, District Attorney Bob Lee said Friday, and investigators say there may be more victims who fell prey to his scheme.
This week, the Santa Cruz County District Attorney's Office filed 103 felony counts, including burglary, forgery, embezzlement, theft and elder financial abuse against Michael J. Schneider.
According to the District Attorney's Office, Schneider, 44, solicited clients to invest in what he advertised as secure real estate loans through his company, California Plan Inc. Turns out, Lee reported, Schneider was keeping the money for himself while sending his clients phony statements leading them to believe they were earning
income from their investments.
The district attorney's investigation uncovered 71 loan transactions from 1995 through December of 2005 that were part of Schneider's scheme, Lee reported.
Lee called the scheme a "house of cards."
Schneider's company specialized in finding private money lenders to make equity mortgage loans to borrowers who were in need of money, Lee reported.
Both Schneider and his company were licensed by the Department of Real Estate as mortgage brokers.
Schneider apparently took money from one investor to pay off dividends to other investors, investigators said. He also created phony deeds or trust and approved them with a phony recording stamp, investigators said.
"Victims felt their money was secure," Lee said.
In the few cases that Schneider actually recorded a deed of trust, he wouldn't tell the investor when the loan was paid off and instead kept the loan payoff, investigators reported. To keep the investors from discovering his fraudulent acts, Schneider's company would send monthly loan payments to the investors, as if the loans were active and valid, investigators reported.
"He was stealing the retirement from hundreds of our citizens," Lee said.
Victims identified so far lost between $25,000 and $500,000 to Schneider, prosecutor Bill Atkinson said.
Investigators are still looking for the money.
Schneider, who had offices in San Jose and Sacramento, may have stolen up to $50 million from investors in Santa Cruz and Santa Clara counties, investigators said.
He was arrested on May 1 by authorities in Santa Clara County and remains in custody.
Contact Jennifer Squires at jsquires@santacruzsentinel.com.
posted by Ralph Marcus (Mark) Maupin | 4:35 AM
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