Dec 30, 2008 9:45 pm US/Pacific
Man Accused Of Taking Millions From Investors
Reporting
Ron Jones
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) ―
A fight over child support led to a local man being accused of bilking investors of their life savings and using the money to live the high life.
Private attorney Richard Johnson is digging deep into the past of Sacramento businessman James Berghuis, the owner of Berghuis National Lending Incorporated, a company that deals in real estate and private investment.
Johnson says he has clear evidence that Berguis' lending practices are suspect. He says he has numerous complaints from private investors that Berguis took hundreds of thousands from them over the years with little return.
"Two percent," Johnson said. "Not two percent plus the principal -- two percent of the principal."
Johnson says some of the investors gave their live savings, and millions may be lost, but the problem was they never asked Berguis how the money was being invested.
"Of all the loan documents that I've seen they do not require him to invest in any particular investments," Johnson said.
Johnson says he discovered the upset investors because of Angela Irvin, who had a child with Berghuis. He claimed he didn't have enough money to pay $1,000 for child support.
"Con artist, compulsive liar," Angela said.
But Johnson learned that Berghuis may have been living the high life. "We have photos of him driving a yellow Ferrari, and find out he had some other expensive cars, [like a] $230,000 Mercedes," he said, "and he lived in a $1.3 million house."
Johnson took Berghuis to court and deposed his accountant.
"The accountant took the 5th amendment privilege," Johnson said. "That was really unusual."
Now Johnson says he's on a mission to find more investors that were possibly victimized.
"If he had just paid the child support according to the guideline amount, none of this would have been developed," he said.
CBS13 went to Berghuis' home and knocked on the door, but the person who was inside refused to answer.
No criminal charges have been filed against Berghuis; these are only allegations in civil court.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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