A multi-year scheme to embezzle $3.2 million from investors backing Temecula Waterpark LP of Aliso Viejo has ended with the operation's business manager admitting to his crimes in federal court.
Daniel Clyde Hunter III told U.S. District Court Judge Andrew J. Guilford this week that he is guilty of lying to investors about the secret conversion of their funds to his personal use, according to court records inside the Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse in Santa Ana.
Earlier this year, Assistant United States Attorney Ann Luotto Wolf accused Hunter of operating his scam from at least July 2006 through 2008 and luring investor money by falsely promising to pay 25 to 30 percent annual returns.
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The government claims Hunter, who is out of custody on bail, diverted money to remodel his home, make car payments and invest in other businesses.
Federal agents traced various bank accounts the swindler used to funnel money to himself.
Guilford scheduled an Oct. 21 sentencing hearing.
Hunter, who was born in 1946 and owes more than $922,000 in restitution to 32 investors, faces a maximum punishment of 20 years in prison.
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CNN-featured investigative reporter R. Scott Moxley has won Journalist of the Year honors at the Los Angeles Press Club; been named Distinguished Journalist of the Year by the LA Society of Professional Journalists; obtained one of the last exclusive prison interviews with Charles Manson disciple Susan Atkins; won inclusion in Jeffrey Toobin’s The Best American Crime Reporting for his coverage of a white supremacist’s senseless murder of a beloved Vietnamese refugee; launched multi-year probes that resulted in the FBI arrests and convictions of the top three ranking members of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department; and gained praise from New York Times Magazine writers for his “herculean job” exposing entrenched Southern California law enforcement corruption.