Top Plaintiffs' Verdict by Dollar: Securities and Exchange Commission v. Schooler, $145 million

Louis V. Schooler's Western Financial Planning Corp. sold units in partnerships that Western had organized to buy vacant land in Nevada and hold for later sale — but it was all a fraud, the Securities and Exchange Commission alleged. Schooler and Eastern failed to tell investors that they were paying an exorbitant markup on the land, sometimes more than five times its fair market value. Schooler also failed to tell investors that the land was often encumbered by mortgages that Western used to help finance the initial purchase of the land.

"Schooler conned hundreds of people into investing with Western by leading them to believe that they were getting a good value for plots of vacant land," said Michele Wein Layne, the SEC's regional director in Los Angeles, in an agency media release. "What he didn't tell them was that the land was worth only a small fraction of their investment and that he was profiting at their expense."

The SEC's complaint led to a massive fraud fine imposed Jan. 21, 2016, by U.S. District Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel of San Diego. Lawyers for the SEC did not respond to messages seeking comment.

The story got messy when Schooler, of Solana Beach, set out in July on a 3,500-mile odyssey on his 42-foot sailboat Entertainer to the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia. He didn't return. According to the authoritative sailing magazine Latitude 38, a New Zealand radio operator got a distress call from the boat July 5. A police helicopter spotted the boat aground on a small atoll with a body aboard, but it was not immediately recovered.

In August, Dyson, Schooler's lawyer, petitioned to be relieved as his counsel and submitted a death certificate issued by Tahitian authorities. SEC counsel did not oppose the motion, but objected to the suggestion that Schooler is dead. "Because of this uncertainty and the fact that there is still an outstanding judgment against Schooler for $145 million," Curiel wrote in an order, "the SEC argues that it 'is not prepared to concede that Mr. Schooler's death has been established.'"

Citing the suspicious circumstances of Schooler's death and the questionable authenticity of the Tahitian death certificate, Curiel denied Dyson's motion to be relieved as counsel, finding Schooler's death "uncertain."

— John Roemer