April 06, 2024 / By mobanmarket
LOS ANGELES, CA — A Beverly Hills man once dubbed a “professional conman” for a past fraud conviction pleaded guilty Friday to federal charges that he siphoned more than $18 million from victims by convincing them they were investing in a hemp farm, which in fact did not exist.
Mark Anderson, 69, who was arrested while on supervised release in the previous case after serving an 11-year federal prison sentence, entered his plea to two counts of wire fraud, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Sentencing was scheduled for Aug. 23, at which time Anderson faces up to 40 years in federal prison, prosecutors said.
Anderson pitched Harvest Farm Group to investors, which he said was a Kern County hemp farm whose crops were used to make CBD or Delta 8 products, such as cosmetics, prosecutors said in a release.
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When pitching investors, Anderson assured potential partners that he was not the same person who had previously been convicted of mail fraud, wire fraud, grand theft, forgery, preparing false evidence and money laundering, as part of a history of convictions dating back to the 1980s, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Anderson, a disbarred lawyer, in 2012 was sentenced to 135 months in federal prison for running a scheme that saw him collect $9.5 million from 14 people. He told investors they were backing various oil ventures, but in reality he used the funds to pay for personal expenses — as well as an interest in the now-closed Prego restaurant in Beverly Hills, according to a release from the FBI.
During his 2012 sentencing, Judge Percy Anderson called the disbarred lawyer “a professional conman,” who had prior convictions stemming from a “decade-long frenzy of fraudulent activity in the 80s,” according to the FBI.
In the current case, prosecutors claim that Anderson used investor’s money for expenses including more than $650,000 worth of luxury and vintage vehicles, over $400,000 in cash withdrawals, more than $142,000 in retail purchases and more than $1.3 million spent to purchase a residence and surrounding citrus groves in Ojai.
City News Service contributed to this report.
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