SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — A businesswoman under the scrutiny of lawsuits and state and federal investigations concerning an alleged Ponzi scheme targeting the Filipino community now faces charges from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The SEC's complaint says Maria Dulce Pino Dickerson has violated antifraud and registration provisions of federal securities laws as she raised about $7 million from more than 130 investors for her companies: Creative Legal Fundings and the Ubiquity Group LLC, both in California.
According to the press release, Dickerson would convince investors to acquire interests in Creative Legal Fundings by falsely claiming she would use their money to make loans to personal injury attorneys to fund their lawsuits. In exchange, she allegedly claimed her company would receive part of any eventual settlements or recoveries, promising guaranteed high returns of 10 to 17.5% per month.
This happened between March 2021 to May 2023, per the SEC.
WATCH: Nearly a year ago, 10News anchor Melissa Mecija spoke to some of the investors who claim Dickerson betrayed their friendship.
"In reality, the complaint alleges, Creative Legal Fundings did not make any loans, conduct any other business, or generate any returns," the release states. "Instead, Dickerson allegedly spent at least $2.5 million in investor funds on personal real estate, gambling, travel and designer goods purchases."
The SEC alleges that Dickerson kept the ruse going by making "Ponzi-like payments" to earlier investors using money from new investors. When she ran out of money to pay investors of Creative Legal Fundings, she shuttered the company and opened The Ubiquity Group to run a similar playbook on unsuspecting investors, the complaint states.
“As alleged, Creative Legal Fundings' operations were neither creative, nor legal. This was nothing more than fraud perpetrated against retail investors, many of whom were members of the Filipino-American community,” says Monique C. Winkler, Director of the SEC’s San Francisco Regional Office.
Now that the charges are filed, the SEC says it will seek permanent injunctions, disgorgement with prejudgment interest and civil penalties against Dickerson. It will also seek an officer-and-director bar against her.
Dickerson is also facing criminal charges from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of California, the release says.
The SEC's investigation was part of the San Francisco Regional Office and Los Angeles Regional Office's task force regarding affinity frauds: The Western Alliance to Protect Targeted Communities. Follow this link to read the investor alert from the SEC, including tips on how to identify and avoid affinity frauds.
