Elderly Stockton Filipino residents targeted in international scheme

More than a dozen suspects are collectively facing hundreds of charges in connection with an alleged international Ponzi scheme targeting mostly elderly Filipino residents in Stockton and Sacramento, authorities say.

The California Department of Justice announced Friday afternoon that 15 defendants are facing a total of more than 200 felony charges, including grand theft and financial elder abuse.

At least 30 victims were convinced to make investments totaling about $5 million in what the California Department of Justice called a “fraudulent scheme” since around December 2015 that promised to use the money for construction of a resort in the Philippines called the Pagudpud Sands Resort.