'Professional Conman' Pleads Not Guilty To Hemp-Farm Scam Charges: DOJ

LOS ANGELES, CA — A Beverly Hills man will remain behind bars after pleading not guilty on Tuesday to charges that he tricked investors into backing a hemp farm that did not exist. Prosecutors claim he bilked $9 million from investors while he was on supervised release as part on an 11-year sentence for a prior fraud conviction, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Mark Roy Anderson, 68, pleaded not guilty to five counts of wire fraud in federal court Tuesday. He was ordered to remain jailed without bond; his trial date was set for July 18.

Anderson pitched Harvest Farm Group to investors, which he said was a Kern County hemp farm whose crops were used to make CBD or Delta 8 products, such as cosmetics, prosecutors said in a release.

When pitching investors, Anderson assured potential partners that he was not the same person who had previously been convicted of mail fraud, wire fraud, grand theft, forgery, preparing false evidence and money laundering, as part of a history of convictions dating back to the 1980s, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Anderson, a disbarred lawyer, in 2012 was sentenced to 135 months in federal prison for running a scheme that saw him collect $9.5 million from 14 people. He told investors they were backing various oil ventures, but in reality he used the funds to pay for personal expenses — as well as an interest in the now-closed Prego restaurant in Beverly Hills, according to a release from the FBI.

During his 2012 sentencing, Judge Percy Anderson called the disbarred lawyer "a professional conman," who had prior convictions stemming from a "decade-long frenzy of fraudulent activity in the 80s," according to the FBI.

In the current case, prosecutors claim that Anderson used investor's money for 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 more than $1.3 million spent to purchase a residence and surrounding citrus groves in Ojai.

Each wire fraud count carries a prison sentence of up to 20 years in federal prison.

City News Service contributed to this report.