Brief Break from the usual Monday Madness of Reilly’s Revenge.
Catching up with current topics.
Two weeks ago I referenced conman Ben Anderson (formerly of Montecito) in my post about the Rosewood Miramar.
The context:
Since October 2025, two of Rick Caruso’s most senior Miramar managers have left his employ, men who helped launch the hotel and who once loyally flanked Caruso’s sides while he paraded around the resort on weekend visits to inspect landscape maintenance as if he were the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland causing fright to the pips.
There have been no public announcements, and lips are tight about the circumstances of their discreet departures.
The first to fall off—last fall—sought and found employment elsewhere after being told his days were numbered.
The second executive moved on to South Carolina. It is whispered, though not confirmed, he may have drawn scrutiny over the alleged comping of beachfront suites to certain individuals with whom he was socially involved. Whether those arrangements crossed internal policy lines remains unclear.
One name surfaces in such conversations: Ben Anderson, a conman who—with his family—moved from Montecito a couple of years ago to quietly resettle in Nashville, Tennessee. It is whispered that Anderson began cutting plans to flee soon after a longform piece of investigative journalism (my own) exposed—in the Santa Barbara News Press—his past frauds.
Here is the column that appeared about Ben Anderson in the News-Press on 22 May 2022.
Montecito’s Ben Alexander-Owens Anderson, 40, offers courses and coaching on “How to Become a Successful Loan Originator” and heavily promotes himself as a public figure “mortgage mogul.”
What is not apparent on Anderson’s website (which was active until this investigation began) or any of his social media channels, is this: In March 2019 the State of California’s Department of Business Oversight revoked his Mortgage Loan Originator (MLO) license.
During that same year, Anderson’s license to initiate mortgages was also revoked in three other states—Washington, Illinois, and Ohio—for “not meeting the standards required” to be licensed as an MLO.
This is largely because, three years earlier—in March 2016—a jury held Anderson liable for fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, misappropriation of confidential information, and five other causes of action.
After a seven-week trial the jury in that case concluded that Anderson had defrauded his employer, Mount Olympus Mortgage, of Irvine, California—and awarded the plaintiff damages against Anderson in the amounts of $5,607,000 in lost profits and $215,654 in punitive damages.
Confidential Client Data Misappropriated
The Chicago Tribune reported that Anderson had downloaded and transferred to another mortgage company, Chicago-based Guaranteed Rate, “more than 200 active loan files and personal financial data on 900 borrowers before switching firms,” even though he had signed a confidentiality agreement upon joining Mount Olympus that forbade such treachery—and enabled Guaranteed Rate to engage in unfair competition.
Said Chad Hummel, an LA-based partner with Sidley Austin who represented the aggrieved mortgage company: “It was quite an elaborate scheme. He [Anderson] transferred all of the data without our client’s consent.”
Or, as the Commissioner of Business Oversight put it: “Beginning as early as April 2014, Anderson began making arrangements to move from Mount Olympus to a different employer, Guaranteed Rate. In exchange, for compensation by Guaranteed, Anderson surreptitiously and without Mount Olympus’s knowledge or consent, arranged to transfer Mount Olympus’s confidential and proprietary information to Guaranteed before leaving Mount Olympus. Between March and June 2014, Anderson initiated and abetted the transfer of Mount Olympus borrowers’ tax returns and bank account statements to Guaranteed, in violation of Mount Olympus’s written policies, which Anderson had signed and agreed to abide by.”
Anderson is reported to have joined Guaranteed Rate immediately after being fired in June 2014 by Mount Olympus, his original sponsor for an MLO license.
(Mount Olympus also sued Guaranteed Rate over Anderson’s egregious behavior and won a judgment for $13 million in punitive damages, $5.6 million in lost profits and $4.6 million in lost business value.)
In addition to citing this case as cause for revoking Anderson’s license, the California Department of Business Oversight also chastised Anderson for “failure to promptly disclose the fact that he had been named in a lawsuit whereby an injunction was sought against him from engaging in certain financial services related activity.”
The department further castigated Anderson for failing to disclose liens taken against him, as required by their regulations.
Revoking Anderson’s license, Administrative Judge Matthew Goldsby wrote that he “misrepresented that he had no unsatisfied liens when in fact two prior tax liens were recorded and not paid” and that “cause exists to discipline respondent’s license number… because he failed to meet the statutory requirements and withheld information or made material misstatements in his application for a license and license renewals.”
Anderson’s website billed him as “a best-selling author” of a book titled Homeowner Now. However, this is a 73-page self-published book that, as far as we can see, has not appeared on any best-seller lists.
Relocation
Mark Leyes of the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation told me: “Mr. Anderson is not currently licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation to act as a mortgage loan originator in California. He may NOT act as an MLO unless and until he applies for and is approved for a license. Both the California Financing Law and California Residential Mortgage Lending Act regulate the conduct of MLOs in California and provide for criminal liability based on willful violations of any provision of those laws, including engaging in unlicensed MLO activity.”
Soon after his MLO license was revoked, Anderson, who apparently attended Biola (a Christian college in La Mirada founded as a Bible institute), relocated his residence from Orange County to Montecito—perhaps, in our opinion, to make a fresh start.
However, reports reaching us allege that this ex-mortgage originator may be endeavoring to broker mortgages even though he no longer possesses the proper licensing to do so.
A person familiar with the company Ben Anderson 365 told me that, through 2020 (after he had lost his license), Anderson “coached a team of loan initiators, and originated loans personally as well, for a company called PRMG.”
(Paramount Residential Mortgage Group is based in Corona, California. I reached out to PRMG for comment, but no one in the company responded.)
And in a post on his Instagram account dated February 10th of this year, under the heading “Happy Client” Anderson quoted Frank@amdur.us: “Out of my 27 home purchases and my refinancing with you…” and “I was pleased to refer you to another family member who is looking for a new home.”
It is unclear when or where Anderson refinanced a home for Frank@amdur.us.
But if it was in California after March 2019, it would be in violation of California Financial Code 50500, as cited by Mark Leyes: “Any person who willfully violates any provision of this division, or any rule or order under this division, shall, upon conviction be subject to a fine of not more than ten thousand dollars ($10,000) or imprisonment in the state prison or in a county jail for not more than one year, or to both that fine and imprisonment.”
We reached out to Anderson to confirm or deny if he has handled mortgages since his license was revoked.
Anderson responded, “I can tell you that I am abiding by the order.”
Idaho?
In December 2020, soon after moving to Montecito, Anderson applied for an MLO license In Idaho.
“Consistent with normal practice,” wrote Patricia Perkins, Director of Idaho’s Department of Finance, “a Department examiner conducted an assessment of the applicant using various sources of information to determine if the Applicant demonstrates sufficient financial responsibility, character, and general fitness in order to be licensed as a mortgage loan initiator.”
Anderson’s request for a license in Idaho was denied.
“The Applicant,” reads that Order, “does not have the character and fitness sufficient to warrant belief that he will operate honestly and fairly.”
In any case, an MLO license in Idaho or any other state would not allow Anderson to initiate mortgages within the state of California.
Mark Leyes told me: A person with an MLO license from another state may assist a California-based borrower on a mortgage on property inside the state where he is licensed but not inside California.
PPP Loans
As with Alice in Wonderland, Anderson’s business practices get curiouser and curiouser—and potentially more seriouser and seriouser, if true, given the penalties involved.
In April 2020, a year after Anderson’s MLO license was revoked, the Ben Anderson 365 Corporation, registered at 9920 Research Drive in Irvine, received a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan (which turned out to be free money) from the Small Business Administration in the amount of $102,436 after it applied to the program on behalf of 11 employees who, the corporation claimed, were in need of funding to keep their jobs during the COVID-19 lockdown.
When we checked, we found the toll-free number that links to Ben Anderson 365 Corporation in Irvine is disconnected.
In January 2021, Ben Anderson 365 Corporation applied for and received a second PPP loan, this time in the amount of $97,700, purportedly on behalf of six employees whose jobs the company linked to an address on East Valley Road in Montecito. This is a residential address (presumably where Anderson resided at the time) and not zoned commercial.
Problem: A former Ben Anderson 365 contractor told me that by January 2021 all of Anderson’s employees had either left or were fired, aside from Ben’s sister-in-law.
PPP loan fraud is a federal crime and violations can lead to a one million dollar fine and 30 years imprisonment.
At his State of Union address, President Biden announced that “the Justice Department will name a chief prosecutor for pandemic fraud.”
Last month, Raymond Magana of LA County was sentenced to 41 months in prison and ordered to pay $360,415 in restitution for committing PPP fraud, which has been described as the largest fraud in U.S, history.
If you suspect PPP fraud, access pandemicoversight.gov and file a complaint electronically.
Now back to Anderson: If he truly employed a staff of six in January 2021 (contrary to what I was told), and they were beneficiaries of PPP loans, what are their names and what are the amounts of funds that were allocated to them?
I reached out to Anderson to confirm or deny if he had only one employee when he applied for and received PPP funds for six employees in January 2021.
Anderson replied: “I can confirm that I had more than 1 employee in January of 2021.”
I followed up: “As mentioned earlier, we have a source who claims you had only one employee, your sister-in- law, in January 2021. This is important because in January 2021 you applied for and received a (second) PPP loan in the amount of $97,700. To fully resolve what I’ve been hearing from our source, I would be grateful if you would provide the identities of the six employees who were allocated PPP funds from that January 2021 PPP loan.”
Anderson replied: “Confidentiality and in good business practice I can’t disclose the identity of my employees, I’m sure you can appreciate that. But I can tell you I had several employees in January 2021.”
We followed up: “While I understand your stance regarding confidentiality, I think the suggestion of PPP fraud is serious enough to outweigh any such concern. I can assure you that, if divulged, I would not publish the names of your employees, but only ensure that they exist and that they received PPP funds. Obviously, failing to provide such information creates enough doubt to justify raising the allegation based on what I’ve learned. So, I ask you, please, to reconsider and identify the six employees who received PPP loan payments in January 2021.”
Anderson did not respond.
Update
In 2023, Ben Anderson put his house in Montecito up for sale, fled California, and settled in Nashville, Tennessee.
It remains unclear whether this column or a state (or federal) investigation caused Anderson’s surprise departure from what he told friends was supposed to be his “forever home” in Montecito.
Read what others have to say about Ben Anderson on Reddit…
