After having been disbarred over a decade ago, 68-year-old former attorney-cum-professional conman Mark Anderson was already on supervised release in Beverly Hills after serving a 135-month federal prison sentence for a 2011 fraud conviction related to a crooked investment scheme, when he was arrested again this month.
Now he's expected to be arraigned today on federal charges and facing five counts of wire fraud for soliciting more than $9 million from victims, who were ensnared into believing false claims that they were investing in a hemp farm.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Anderson allegedly tricked investors into providing funding for his company, Harvest Farm Group, which was said to be intent on harvesting and processing hemp that was grown on his farm into medical grade CBD isolate that would be sold for big profits
Special agents with the FBI arrested Anderson on May 9 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.
Court papers state that Anderson allegedly attempted to maintain an appearance of trustworthiness by taking steps to assure potential investors that Harvest Farms Group was not only legitimate, but that he "was not the 'Mark Roy Anderson' with multiple prior fraud convictions."