CEO of California Real Estate Investment Fund Is Charged in $100 Million Ponzi Scheme

Federal prosecutors have charged a San Francisco Bay Area real estate investor with perpetrating a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme that they say defrauded more than 190 investors out of $103 million, many of whom are senior citizens.Mark Hanf, the CEO of Pacific Private Money Group, and PPMG’s Chief Operating Officer Nam Phan were charged with wire fraud in a criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court of Northern California on Aug. 31. Hanf was charged separately with money laundering. Both pleaded not guilty and were released on $250,000 bonds. The Securities and Exchange Commission separately filed a civil enforcement action against Hanf and Phan, charging them with violating securities law and orchestrating an offering fraud.Officials say that between December 2021 and December 2025, the pair approached investors about various real estate investment opportunities, pledging to use the funds to purchase real estate–backed loans and promising big returns. The DOJ complaint alleges that Hanf and Phan knew early on that their investment projects were losing money, after one of their partner developer died and they learned that his loans were not performing and that the proj...