Three Plead Guilty in Palmdale Land Fraud

LOS ANGELES —  A Palmdale woman and two accomplices have pleaded guilty to bilking more than 70 Filipinos, mostly poor immigrants, out of $1.4 million in a High Desert land fraud.

Carolina Acio Paredes, 65, will be sentenced March 18 and could receive up to 12 years in state prison. She pleaded guilty to 10 felony counts of grand theft and violations of business and professional codes.

Paredes and her partners, who include a daughter-in-law, sold parcels of land at greatly inflated prices for almost 10 years to other Filipinos, falsely saying that the land was subdivided and ready to build on, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Victor M. Minjares. She and the partners all pleaded guilty.

He said more than 200 victims are estimated to have lost about $4 million in the scheme, which began in the late 1980s. Due to the long time lapse and provisions of the statute of limitations, many of the crimes could not be prosecuted.

Minjares called the scheme an “affinity crime,” in which a more sophisticated person from an ethnic group develops a bond of trust with members of the same group because of their common background. Paredes and the others are all of Filipino descent.