A convicted felon, who stole tens of thousands of dollars from an elderly Moreno Valley couple tricked into believing that he was a certified mortgage specialist able to help them refinance their properties, pleaded guilty Thursday to embezzlement and burglary charges and was immediately sentenced to three years probation and ordered to pay back all his ill-gotten gains.
Nathaniel Spencer, 57, of Moreno Valley entered into a plea agreement with the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office in which he also admitted a sentence-enhancing allegation of committing a crime within five years of parole from state prison, as his preliminary hearing was set to begin. In exchange for Spencer’s admissions, prosecutors dropped two related embezzlement and burglary charges, along with sentence-enhancing allegations of targeting victims over 65 years of age.
Superior Court Judge David Gunn certified the terms of the plea deal and imposed the sentence stipulated by the prosecution and defense. In addition to the probation term, the judge ordered the defendant to serve 131 days in a sheriff’s work release program and ordered him to pay $34,820 in victim restitution — the entire sum he stole.
Spencer will be able to make monthly payments ranging from $820 to $4,000 until the money is returned, according to the court.
The ex-con was arrested in February following an investigation by the D.A.’s Real Estate Fraud Unit. He was attempting to elude law enforcement when he was apprehended by U.S. marshals.
According to prosecutors, Spencer met and gained the victims’ trust in 2015, convincing them that he was a mortgage specialist operating a company called Optima Funding Group.
When the couple told Spencer they wished to refinance loans on several properties, he persuaded them to let him handle the transactions — but insisted that they pay him in advance. The couple wrote him three separate checks on different dates, according to the D.A.’s office, which stated that “none of the victims’ money was ever deposited into a bank account, and all the checks were instead cashed by Spencer.”
The defendant never procured appraisals for the properties and never initiated any refinancing on behalf of the victims, whose names were withheld, according to the prosecution.
Investigators submitted the case to the D.A’s office last fall, and a criminal complaint was filed last October. Because Spencer could not be located, a warrant was issued for his arrest. He was taken into custody three months later.
According to court records, he has prior theft-related convictions out of Orange County, for which he served time in prison.