Sacramento Bee, 6/28/10And so the Tejas, well educated with perfect credit scores and a successful business in Chico, took the bait, siphoning $150,000 in equity out of their home in 2006 and turning it over to Loomis Wealth Solutions, a firm Loomis started in Chico and later moved to Roseville.
Today, the money is gone, part of what federal authorities say was a $100 million Ponzi scheme that has spawned a years-long investigation, a maze of mortgage fraud, drug and hate crime charges, and financial woes for investors nationwide.
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Loomis has denied wrongdoing to federal agents and through his attorney. According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Russell Carlberg, Loomis remains under investigation in an ongoing probe that has generated criminal charges against four of his lieutenants.
His financial empire is in ruins, and he and his father-in-law, John Hagener, are facing a civil complaint by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, along with civil suits by investors who say they were duped out of money. Hagener answered the SEC complaint with a denial of wrongdoing; Loomis never responded and was found to be in default June 10.
The Tejas are among those suing Loomis. A group called Attorneys Against Abuse of Elders filed a proposed class-action suit in Sacramento Superior Court, calling the investment plan "an elegantly sophisticated scheme." That suit has since been moved to federal court.