A Beverly Hills man who was finishing a sentence in a prior fraud case is expected to plead guilty Friday to federal charges alleging he siphoned more than $18 million from victims with false claims they were investing in a hemp farm that did not exist.
Mark Anderson, 69, who was arrested while on supervised release in the previous case after serving a 135-month federal prison sentence, has agreed to enter his plea to two counts of wire fraud, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
His attorney could not be reached for comment.
Anderson allegedly tricked investors into providing funding for his company, called Harvest Farm Group, to harvest and process hemp, supposedly grown on his farm, into medical grade CBD isolate to be sold for a substantial profit, federal prosecutors said.
“His ruse was so convincing that some victims gave him money for fake businesses even after having sophisticated legal counsel review business agreements defendant himself created,” prosecutors wrote in court papers.
Special agents with the FBI arrested Anderson last May after prosecutors filed a criminal complaint in Los Angeles federal court alleging a scheme to induce victims to send money to the defendant from at least June 2020 to April 2021, officials said.
Anderson allegedly attempted to maintain an appearance of trustworthiness by taking steps to assure potential investors that Harvest Farm was legitimate and he “was not the `Mark Roy Anderson’ with multiple prior fraud convictions,” court papers state.
The indictment contends Anderson “concealed that he had been convicted of multiple federal and state felony crimes, including mail fraud, wire fraud, grand theft, forgery, preparing false evidence, and money laundering, and concealed that he was still serving a criminal sentence and still on supervised release at the time he was soliciting investments.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office alleges Anderson used investor money for personal expenses, including more than $650,000 worth of luxury and vintage vehicles, over $400,000 in cash withdrawals, more than $142,000 in retail purchases, and other personal expenses, including more than $1.3 million spent on a home and surrounding citrus groves in Ojai.
Federal prosecutors contend that in total, Anderson solicited at least $18.8 million from more than 45 victim-investors.
“The scheme was sophisticated in that defendant created and caused the creation of multiple shell companies, including Harvest Farm Group, Bio Pharma, and Verta Bottling … and fake legal agreements and related schedules and other documents and products to create the false impression that defendant’s companies were real companies and investors were making legitimate investments in legitimate companies and otherwise purchasing real companies and assets,” prosecutors wrote.
Each wire fraud count carries a possible sentence of up to 20 years in federal prison, prosecutors noted.