Everett woman pleads guilty in investment fraud scheme

Herald staff

SEATTLE — An Everett woman has pleaded guilty to mail fraud in connection with a scheme that bilked investors out of roughly $6 million.

Sandra Lucille Crist, 49, entered the plea during a hearing Friday in U.S. District Court in Seattle. She faces up to five years in prison at her sentencing, now scheduled for Dec. 12.

Crist had operated a Mill Creek investment business called SanMar &Associates. SanMar engaged in "hard money" lending, loaning money to borrowers who were unable to qualify for conventional bank financing but who could provide a deed or other security interest in exchange for a high-interest loan.

The indictment alleges that Crist presented 82 investors in her company with forged deeds that supposedly secured their investment.

The federal charges were the result of an investigation by the FBI and the securities division of the state Department of Financial Institutions.

State securities officials in October 2000 ordered the company to cease operating after determining that SanMar Associates was taking investors’ money for fictitious securities.

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