Ponzi Scheme Suspects Sentenced to Three Years in Prison and Ordered to Repay Victims

Two of the three Diamond Bar women charged with defrauding seven people out of close to $600,000 pleaded no contest in Pomona Superior Court today, and were immediately sentenced to three years in state prison and ordered to repay the victims.

Last July, when the women were arrested, it was reported that the list of more than 40 suspected victims included an unspecified number of people from South Gate, said a press release issued by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. 

The Sheriff's department could not confirm if a resident of South Gate was part of the plea.  

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office announced that 42-year-old Maricela Barajas, also known as Maricela Torres, pleaded no contest to seven counts of securities fraud, and was sentenced by Judge Mike Camacho to three years in state prison, which will be served in a county jail.

Also pleading no contest to seven counts of securities fraud was Juliana Menefee, 51, who was sentenced by Commissioner Wade Olson to three years in state prison, served in county jail.

According to Deputy District Attorney James Belna, both women were ordered to pay close to $300,000 each to the same seven victims.

Barajas and Menefee, along with co-defendant Eva Perez, 52, met their victims through school functions, with Menefee a member of the  PTA and Perez a one-time president. The trio told victims they were investing in an exclusive contract with Alta Dena Dairy to sell milk to Disneyland, Disney Hotels, and other retailers.

Belna says that between June 2008 to August 2010, more than 30 people from across Los Angeles County invested with the women, with amounts ranging from $2,000 to $100,000. All were promised huge rates of return, up to 100 percent.

Perez has been serving a 10-year state prison sentence in San Bernardino County since pleading guilty to a similar scheme in 2010. She pleaded no contest to seven counts of securities fraud and one county of using a device to defraud on April 19, and was sentenced by Commissioner Olson to three years in state prison, which will be served consecutively with her current sentence.

According to Belna, Perez was the ringleader of the scheme, and was ordered to repay $1,037,225 in restitution.

Barajas and Menefee were , after a six month fraud investigation. At the time, Perez was already convicted on her San Bernardino County charges.

Sheriff's investigators in July said most victims involved in this scheme found out "within a couple of weeks" that Perez had been arrested in late 2010 and began to ask questions that led to internal audits of the group. Barajas and Menefee .

- Alejandro Lopez de Haro, editor of South Gate Patch Latino, contributed reporting to this story.