Corporate & Securities Law

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged two Sacramento-area men with misappropriating approximately $10 million from more than 100 investors who were falsely promised that their money would be loaned to homebuyers and secured by real estate deeds of trust.

The SEC alleges that Lawrence "Lee" Loomis solicited investments in investment funds managed by his father-in-law John Hagener.  Loomis told investors they were investing in safe "liquid high-yield accounts" that would earn 12 percent returns guaranteed by a third party.  The SEC's complaint alleges that Loomis and Hagener instead used the money primarily to prop up Loomis' other failing businesses.  The SEC further alleges that Loomis paid himself hundreds of thousands of dollars from companies that received investor money and Hagener received more than $190,000 for managing the funds even though he was misappropriating investors' money to fund other businesses.