Sacramento ‘pageant queen’ pleads responsible to $10M Ponzi scheme concentrating on traders

A Sacramento lady who proclaimed herself as a magnificence pageant queen has pleaded responsible to swindling traders out of greater than $10 million to pay for holidays, playing and different bills supporting an opulent way of life.

Maria Dickerson, 49, often known as “Dulce Pino,” ran a four-year Ponzi scheme from 2020 to 2024, in response to the US Legal professional’s Workplace in control of the Jap District of California.

Dickerson offered pursuits in a faux shell firm known as Inventive Authorized Fundings of California, telling traders their cash was protected, safe, and backed by vital capital.

She lied to some traders that the corporate was related to an unnamed CEO of a multinational on line casino and resort company.

She advised traders she was a magnificence pageant queen and a former “Ms. Girl Nevada,” in response to a cease-and-desist order from the California Division of Monetary Safety and Innovation. She even hosted one particular person in a Las Vegas resort suite to pitch her scheme.

Dickerson promised a ten % fee of return. The reality: She used the money to repay prior traders to maintain the fraud going.

In the meantime, she made costly purchases akin to a Mercedes Benz, designer items, and a home in Sacramento. She vacationed, gambled, and flew on non-public jets utilizing the cash.

At the very least $7 million of the cash swindled was focused from the Filipino American neighborhood, in response to US Securities and Alternate Fee.

She even tried to open up one other Ponzi scheme beneath a brand new firm, The Ubiquity Group, after working out of cash to pay the Inventive Authorized Funding’s traders in Could 2023, the fee alleged.

It was throughout that 12 months that traders started requesting to withdraw their funds, however Inventive Authorized repeatedly refused to take action, the state’s monetary regulator stated.

“As alleged, Inventive Authorized Fundings’ operations have been neither artistic, nor authorized. This was nothing greater than fraud perpetrated towards retail traders,” Monique C. Winkler, director of the SEC’s San Francisco Regional Workplace, stated in an announcement.

Dickerson can be sentenced in July and faces as much as 40 years in jail and a $5.25 million wonderful for 2 counts of wire fraud and securities fraud.

Dickerson did win a state-level title in the US Nationwide Pageants system, in response to its web site.

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