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District Attorney Robert Morgenthau said the New York woman, Jennifer Wilkov of Brooklyn, used her job at American Express Financial Advisors to help her West Coast confederates find 23 local people who were victimized by the scheme.
Wilkov, 38, solicited investors between 2005 and 2006 for Carla Zimbalist, 62, of Beverly Hills, and Pam Chanla, a native of Laos who is also known as Sayasith Khammanivong, 33, a resident of Alhambra, Calif., Morgenthau said.
Prosecutors said Wilkov received a total of $145,000 in commissions and consulting fees from Zimbalist and Chanla for recruiting investors.
The district attorney said the defendants told victims they were investing in nine single-family houses worth $500,000 to $1 million in southern California that would be renovated and sold, and the profits shared by investors.
In fact, Morgenthau said, Zimbalist and Chanla owned just two of the houses and at some point they went into foreclosure because they failed to make payments on the loans they had taken out to buy the properties.
Wilkov told some victims that the investments were part of her work for American Express Financial Advisors and she told others the investments were a sideline separate from her AmEx job, prosecutors said.
Zimbalist and Chanla used much of the money stolen from New York investors to pay personal expenses and civil judgments against them for thefts from California victims who made similar housing investments with them, Morgenthau said.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department is investigating alleged criminal activities in that area by the women. He said the pair might have a total of 40 victims, and may have taken West Coast victims for more than $2 million.
Wilkov, arrested Tuesday, pleaded not guilty in Manhattan's state Supreme Court to scheme to defraud and securities fraud under the state's general business law. Both charges are punishable by up to four years in prison.
Wilkov's lawyer, Barry Bohrer, said his client herself was victimized by the pair. He said she was introduced to the two women by her brother who lives in California and invested with them. He said Wilkov, her brother and her father in Florida, together had lost "well in excess of $1 million" in what they thought were legitimate projects.
Acting Justice Brenda Soloff set Wilkov's bond at $500,000 to be secured by $50,000 cash. The judge ordered Wilkov to surrender her passport and told her to post the bail by July 6, the defendant's next court date.
Zimbalist, indicted here on charges of grand larceny, scheme to defraud and securities fraud, is in custody in Los Angeles, prosecutors said. She faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted.
Morgenthau said Chanla, facing the same charges as Zimbalist, is a fugitive.
Wilkov left American Express in August 2005 to open her own Brooklyn-based financial advice company, Evolutionary Strategic Planning, prosecutors said.
BY SAMUEL MAULLP
Associated Press Writer
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