Former Ladera Ranch man arrested for suspected house-flipping scheme

A former Ladera Ranch resident accused of operating a $2 million real estate scheme through an Orange County company was arrested by FBI agents on Wednesday.

A federal grand jury at the federal courthouse in Santa Ana recently returned an indictment charging Daniel Vazquez, 56, with two counts of mail fraud and eight counts of wire fraud, the FBI announced Wednesday afternoon.

According to the FBI, Vazquez from 2010 to 2014 sold real estate investments through the Hoplon Financial Group and New Economic Opportunities Fund.

Prosecutors allege that Vazquez promised investors that their money would be used to buy, renovate and then sell properties for a profit. Instead, prosecutors allege, Vazquez used the money on personal expenses, such as renovations of his home, the purchase of luxury vehicles and paying down his own credit card debt.

More than two-dozen investors are estimated to have lost a collective $2 million, prosecutors said.

FBI agents had been searching for Vazquez since the grand jury indictment was returned on April 25. They learned that he had been arrested on unrelated charges last month in Tustin, and took him into custody Wednesday upon his release from Orange County Jail, according to the FBI.

The criminal charges follow an earlier complaint filed against Vazquez and another company executive by the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission. That earlier complaint alleged that Vazquez committed securities violations in the house flipping venture.