Statement Summary
The SEC has charged Mark D. Hanf, former CEO of Pacific Private Money Group LLC, and Hoai-Nam Chu Phan, former COO, with an offering fraud that raised over $80 million from around 190 investors, primarily retirees. From December 2021 to November 2025, the duo misrepresented how investor capital would be used, claiming it would secure real estate loans while using new investor funds for Ponzi-like payments to earlier investors. Hanf allegedly misappropriated over $7 million for personal gain. The scheme fell apart in late 2025 as investors sought to withdraw their funds, leading to significant losses with recoverable assets plummeting to under $17 million by February 2026. Both defendants consented to judgments against them, permanently prohibiting them from violating securities laws and participating in securities transactions, with financial penalties to be determined later.
Original Statement
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Mark D. Hanf, the former CEO of Novato, California-based Pacific Private Money Group LLC (PPMG), and Hoai-Nam Chu Phan, the former COO of a PPMG subsidiary, with orchestrating an offering fraud that raised more than $80 million from approximately 190 mostly retail investors, many of whom were retired senior citizens.
According to the SEC’s complaint, from approximately December 2021 to November 2025, Hanf and Phan, also known as Nam Phan, misrepresented to investors in two of PPMG’s private funds that investor capital would be used to originate or purchase loans secured by real estate, and that investors could expect to receive preferred or fixed rates of return from the funds’ real estate lending activities. However, as alleged, Hanf and Phan regularly used new investor capital to make Ponzi-like payments to prior investors during this timeframe, and the returns that Hanf and Phan touted were sourced largely from new investor money rather than from any fund earnings connected with their real estate lending business.
The SEC further alleges that Hanf misappropriated more than $7 million of investor funds for his own personal benefit.
“This alleged scheme began to unravel in the fall of 2025 as numerous investors demanded to withdraw their money and the defendants did not have sufficient funds to satisfy those requests,” said Jason Lee, Associate Director of the SEC’s San Francisco Regional Office. “Despite total outstanding investments in the two private funds of almost $121 million, by February 2026 the total recoverable assets of those funds were estimated to be less than $17 million. That amounts to devastating losses for so many investors.”
The SEC’s complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, charges Hanf with violating Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder, and charges Phan with violating Sections 17(a)(1) and (3) of the Securities Act and Section 10(b) of the Exchange Act and Rule 10b-5 thereunder. Without admitting the allegations in the SEC’s complaint, Hanf and Phan each consented to the entry of a judgment, subject to court approval, that would permanently enjoin them from violating the charged provisions of the federal securities laws and from directly or indirectly participating in the issuance, purchase, offer, or sale of any security, except for purchases or sales for their own personal accounts; and order that any disgorgement, prejudgment interest, and civil money penalties against Hanf as well as any civil penalties against Phan be determined by the Court at a later date upon motion by the Commission.
