Husband-and-wife real estate agents who took part in a Ponzi scheme directed at Filipino homeowners trying to avoid foreclosure were sentenced to probation and ordered to give up their real estate licenses.
Ben Hebron, 51, and Gloria Hebron, 53, pleaded guilty in April to deceitful practices by a foreclosure consultant and rent skimming.
"They knew it was a scam, " prosecutor William La Fond said before the pair were sentenced by Judge Kathleen Lewis, who suspended a yearlong jail sentence as long as the defendants successfully complete three years of probation.
The Hebrons were also ordered to perform 25 days of public service work and pay $8, 400 in restitution.
They were indicted in January with co-defendants Edmundo Rubi and Joseph Encarnacion.
La Fond said the defendants aligned themselves with Rubi -- whom he called a "career criminal" -- victimizing fellow Filipinos in their own community.
In most cases, Rubi -- the scheme's alleged ringleader -- would tell victims, "Don't pay the bank. Pay us instead, " the prosecutor said outside court.
Encarnacion, 60, was sentenced to four years in prison for admitting he recruited victims and assisted in a presentation in which the homeowners were encouraged to transfer titles to their real estate to the defendants, La Fond said.
Rubi, 52, is scheduled for a mental competency hearing on July 9.
Filipinos in San Diego were urged to invest in companies called "Apocalypse Trust" and "Amerisian Trust, " the prosecutor said.
Encarnacion and Rubi were caught on tape during one of their presentations bragging about their partnership and how it was going to make them a lot of money, the prosecutor said.
Ultimately, Rubi met with undercover agents last year and requested they put up $20, 000 to $30, 000 to invest in projects such as a high-speed rail between Las Vegas and San Francisco, low-income housing in San Diego and construction of a nursing home in Northern California, guaranteeing a 3 percent return, La Fond said.
During the scam, 22 people "quitclaimed" 34 properties into various fraudulent trusts owned by Rubi and administered by the Hebrons, the prosecutor said.
At the time he was indicted, Rubi had just gotten out of prison after serving a 70- month federal sentence for swindling $24 million out of 425 mostly Filipino victims in 2005, La Fond said.