Authorities charged Maria “Dulce Pino” Dickerson for operating a Ponzi scheme she allegedly used to fund a lavish life-style of personal jet journeys to Las Vegas, designer purchasing sprees, and luxe holidays that she flaunted on social media.
An indictment unsealed this week alleges Dickerson, 47, registered a enterprise in 2020 in California, the identical yr she gained a Ms. Girl Nevada pageant. She named the enterprise Artistic Authorized Fundings, which was a ripoff of a equally named reliable enterprise that Dickerson allegedly catfished her traders with. She instructed potential victims her enterprise loaned cash to attorneys to fund private harm lawsuits and promised fastened charges of return, authorities alleged. She additionally claimed to have monetary backing from two high-powered executives, together with the CEO of a multinational on line casino firm.
None of it was true, in keeping with the Division of Justice and the Securities and Change Fee (SEC), which each charged Dickerson with various sorts of fraud. Dickerson additionally posted extensively on social media, exhibiting herself on personal jets, with luxurious items and competing in grownup magnificence pageants. Dickerson really gained a Ms. Elite Nevada pageant through the time her Ponzi scheme was allegedly ongoing.
Authorities declare her jet-set magnificence queen picture was meant to deceive traders into giving her cash. Dickerson then spent hundreds of thousands on herself, in keeping with the indictment. In 2021, she paid $93,000 for a Mercedes-Benz GLE350, and one other $150,000 in 2022 for a Mercedes-Benz EQS V4. She additionally spent hundreds at casinos and acquired a sprawling mansion in Sacramento for $1 million in money and spent $30,000 filling it with new furnishings, the courtroom paperwork present.
Dickerson, who’s Filipina American, focused different Filipinos in her deceits, authorities alleged, and she or he used new investor funds to pay earlier traders to maintain the Ponzi scheme going. She collected about $10 million complete from 140 traders, in keeping with the indictment. Final yr, dozens of individuals sued Dickerson in Washington to attempt to recoup their investments, which ranged from $5,000 to $145,000. Filipina actress Rita Magdalena was ensnared within the Ponzi scheme, and posted on Instagram that lots of her associates in San Diego had been additionally associates of Dickerson’s, which led individuals to consider that her claims had been legit.
“Never trust anyone,” Magdalena wrote final yr.
Dickerson now faces a litany of 24 counts of wire fraud, seven counts of cash laundering and a securities fraud cost. In accordance with the Division of Justice, she may resist 50 years in jail and almost $13 million in fines and penalties.
“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,” mentioned Monique Winkler, director of the SEC’s San Francisco Regional Workplace in an announcement.
Dickerson’s lawyer didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
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