A California woman has been sentenced to nearly 19 years in prison for her part in an investment scheme that defrauded victims of $735,000 in retirement savings and inherited funds, state Attorney General Rob Bonta announced Tuesday.
A jury convicted Alma Perez in July of grand theft, securities fraud, conspiracy, use of a scheme to defraud in connection with sale of a security, and the aggravated white collar crime enhancement, Bonta said. On Friday, she was sentenced to 18 years and eight months in prison.
“When bad actors scheme to steal the savings of hardworking Californians, we won’t stand idly by," Bonta said. “Today, justice has been served. Those who cheat the system to line their own pockets will be held accountable for their crimes. At the California Department of Justice, we will continue to fight fraud and financial crimes wherever they occur."
From May 2008 to December 2013, Perez schemed to defraud by selling investments in her companies, Grand Trine LLC and Kings Funding Source LLC, falsely representing to victims that their investment principal would be “guaranteed,” without risk, and that they would receive monthly returns, according to prosecutors.
Perez used victims’ investments for personal spending, including credit card payments, groceries, clothing purchases, utilities, dining expenses, cash withdrawals and Ponzi-type payments to other victims, presenting them as “investment returns,” prosecutors said.
She also forged a disbursement request from a victim’s annuity policy, transferring the money into an account she used for her own expenses, they noted.
In 2017, an Alma Perez was convicted of 11 felony counts and sentenced to 10 years in prison in a California fraud scheme — along with a church pastor who was sentenced to nearly 24 years in prison — in which they scammed church members, using $900,000 in victims' life savings for personal expenses and get-rich-quick schemes, prosecutors said at the time.
Court records online indicate that the earlier case involved Grand Trine and a related company, and occurred from 2008 to 2012.
Representatives from Bonta's office weren't immediately available Wednesday to confirm connections between the two cases.
Image: Shutterstock
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