On July 10, 2012, Celia Gallardo, 42, North Hills, CA was indicted on nine counts of wire fraud and seven counts of mail fraud by a federal grand jury in the Central District of California. Gallardo, a San Fernando Valley real estate agent who held herself out as a real estate investor was charged with running a million-dollar Ponzi scheme from September 2007 through September 2008 that victimized dozens of investors through a bogus real estate investment program. Gallardo told the investors that she would purchase condominiums and that these properties would quickly yield high rates of return: a 100 percent in only 30 days. Read more on Forbes here.
