Roseville, Calif. – Lee Loomis, 58, of Granite Bay, recently pleaded guilty to wire fraud, United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced.
According to court documents, Loomis was president of a company called Loomis Wealth Solutions. Through seminars and face-to-face meetings, he induced individuals to invest money in the Naras Funds, which he claimed were liquid, savings account-like investments that yielded a 12 percent annual return. He also claimed the investment was secured by a third party that was using the money to make loans secured by residential properties.
In fact, investors in the Naras Funds lost their investments. In his plea agreement, Loomis admitted that the funds were not used as was promised to investors. Instead, Loomis and his co-defendants used the funds to pay for ongoing operations and to pay previous investors. Loomis took in more than $10 million in investor funds, defrauding more than 50 individuals. At the time law enforcement executed search warrants at the business, only $4,313 was left in investor accounts.
“This guilty plea brings to an end Lee Loomis’s long and destructive scheme to defraud investors,” said U.S. Attorney Wagner. “While it is doubtful that investor victims will ever be made whole, Loomis has been brought to justice, and he will never again be in a position to cause financial harm to others.”
This case is the product of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, and the California Bureau of Real Estate. Assistant United States Attorneys Paul Hemesath and Jared Dolan are prosecuting the case.
Loomis has been in custody since September 14, 2012. He will remain in custody pending sentencing. Co-defendants Dawn C. Powers, 45, of Lincoln, John Hagener, 79, of Granite Bay, and Joseph Gekko, 47, of Yorba Linda, have previously pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing. Co-defendants Michael Llamas, 31, of Tracy, and Peter Woodard, 47, of Ventura, are also named co-defendants in the mortgage fraud allegations in the indictment. A trial against Llamas and Woodard is set for September 12, 2016. The charges against them are allegations: the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Loomis is scheduled to be sentenced by United States District Judge John A. Mendez on May 10, 2016. Loomis faces a maximum statutory penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The actual sentence, however, will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables.
