Former loan officer pleads guilty in investment scheme
A former Henderson loan officer pleaded guilty in federal court this week in a $1 million, high-yield investment scheme involving the foreign currency exchange market.
Kamalu Gonzales, 47, entered a guilty plea to fraud and money laundering charges, Nevada U.S. Attorney Daniel Bogden said Tuesday.
Gonzales persuaded more than 30 victims to give him $1 million between 2007 and 2008 in the scheme.
He was accused of pocketing roughly $410,000 of the money, Bogden said.
Gonzales is to be sentenced Nov. 14 before U.S. District Judge Gloria M. Navarro.
According to court documents, Gonzales portrayed himself as a successful investor and trader in the foreign currency exchange market.
He recruited people to invest with him in the market, telling them that they could earn high rates of return on their investments in a short period of time.
Some victims wired money to Gonzales, and others borrowed money from their retirement funds and lines of credit, or refinanced their homes to invest with him.
Gonzales, who worked as a loan officer for Meridias Capital in 2007, was accused of providing false information on loan applications to help people refinance homes.
Gonzales persuaded the applicants to put some of the cash they received from refinancing into his investment scheme, and then he repeatedly lied to them about the progress of their investments, according to the court documents.
The case was investigated by the FBI and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kathryn Newman and Kimberly Frayn.
Contact Jeff German at jgerman@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-8135. Follow @JGermanRJ on Twitter.