Three pastors and a church employee have joined a growing list of inland investors looking to the courts to recoup investments made with a company accused of operating a Ponzi scheme.
Seattle-based Anderson Law Group was the target of six lawsuits filed this month in Riverside County Superior Court. Many investors have said Anderson helped them establish corporations to funnel money to MX Factors, a firm providing accounts receivable finance and its investment arms, JTL Financial Group of Corona and BBH Resources of Palm Desert. In all, the plaintiffs say they invested more than $1.4 million.
Bernie Bicoy, president of Venture Research Institute, says he's repeatedly seen pastors and attorneys caught up in high-yield frauds. Both lend legitimacy to Ponzi schemes, in which early investors are paid with money from new investors. Such schemes count on trust and person-to-person salesmanship, Bicoy said.
