Co-owner of Newport Beach firm gets probation for role in multi-million-dollar real estate scam

Orange County Register (CA)

A Sacramento man and co-owner of a Newport Beach investment firm found to have helped bilk victims out of millions of dollars through bogus real estate deals was sentenced to five years of probation on Tuesday, June 4.

Louis Zimmerle, 64, pleaded guilty last October to one count of wire fraud for his part in what federal investigators said was a $13.8 million scheme that promised investors returns of up to 10% for money they poured into what he and a co-conspirator, Brett Barber, said were real estate projects they bought and sold.

But the company the men owned together, BNZ Capital, “did not take any substantial steps to develop parcels, nor did BNZ flip real estate for a profit,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.

“Rather, BNZ primarily used investor funds to pay Barber, Zimmerle and others associated with the scheme, including purchasing residences where Barber and Zimmerle lived,” officials said in a statement. “Some of the investors’ money was used to repay earlier investors.”

In a criminal complaint filed last year, investigators outlined how they say Barber, 44, of Costa Mesa tricked victims into giving him money.

During a meeting in October 2021, Barber told an apparent potential investor that one of his firms, National American Capital, in the words of federal officials, had “been in business for 20 years” and “that it owned parcels of land in Laguna Beach” intended to be developed.

Barber told the investor, who was actually an undercover FBI agent, that NAC also owned property in Newport Beach that would be developed with four condominiums, officials said, adding that none of those claims was true.

In addition to probation, Zimmerle was ordered to pay back $684,500 to victims of the scheme. Barber faces far stiffer penalties for his actions to keep the scam going.

Barber pleaded guilty last year to two counts of wire fraud and one count of criminal contempt. He faces 20 years in prison for each count of wire fraud, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He faces the possibility of life in prison for the count of criminal contempt.

Both men still face a civil lawsuit by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.