{"id":12383760,"date":"2025-12-26T07:16:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T15:16:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/?p=12383760&preview=true&preview_id=12383760"},"modified":"2025-12-28T00:36:51","modified_gmt":"2025-12-28T08:36:51","slug":"how-a-group-of-wronged-ken-mattson-investors-became-gods-answer-to-our-own-prayers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/2025\/12\/26\/how-a-group-of-wronged-ken-mattson-investors-became-gods-answer-to-our-own-prayers\/","title":{"rendered":"How a group of investors wronged by Bay Area real estate mogul became \u2018God\u2019s answer to our own prayers\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Four days after a hearing in the criminal case of Ken Mattson, who has been accused by federal prosecutors of wire fraud, money laundering and obstruction of justice,<\/a> 13 of the investors he wronged were discussing how their lives have been affected by their association with the indicted Sonoma real estate investment advisor.<\/p>\n

RELATED: Indicted Bay Area real estate mogul must give up deed to East Bay house<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Despite Mattson\u2019s convincing promises of a retirement free from financial worry, Santa Rosa resident Maria Crane observed, she and her husband, Stephen, would have been better off just leaving their money in the stock market.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would have been better off leaving it in a sock drawer,\u201d fellow investor Tom Mack quipped.<\/p>\n

The laughter that overtook the room was like the release of a pressure valve.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know there\u2019s been healing,\u201d Stephen Crane observed a little later in the afternoon. \u201cBecause we laugh.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"From
From left, Mike Morse, Maria Crane and Edy Mack react to a white elephant gift during a Christmas potluck, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. All were investors with LeFever Mattson. (Kent Porter \/ The Press Democrat) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For the hundreds of people who powered the investment business of LeFever Mattson Inc.<\/a> \u2014 the main real estate investment entity, which eventually encompassed around 200 real estate properties valued at an estimated $400 million \u2014 the past 20 months have been a wearying montage of lost income, vanished retirement funds, bankruptcies, claims forms and tightened belts.<\/p>\n

But a small set of investors has found solace in an unlikely source. They have turned to one another.<\/p>\n

Two years ago, they were strangers. Now they trade texts on a regular basis, creating something graceful out of their despair.<\/p>\n

These investors have quietly been meeting over Zoom, almost every Saturday morning for a year and a half, to pray together and offer mutual support. And some have gathered in person a half-dozen times for potlucks \u2014 most recently on Dec. 14, at the home of Tom Mack and Edy Hayashi near Fairfield.<\/p>\n

The meetups have served as an antidote for the worry that has at times threatened to consume them.<\/p>\n

Court documents filed in October by various legal teams in the LeFever Mattson bankruptcy case, including those representing an unsecured creditors committee appointed to advocate for victims, suggested investors might ultimately receive 20-40% of what they put in, <\/a>which for many represented their main savings and retirement nest eggs.<\/p>\n

Between them, the 13 people assembled at Mack\u2019s and Hayashi\u2019s dining table, according to a quick back-of-napkin accounting, had invested somewhere around $20 million with LeFever Mattson and its various real estate entities.<\/p>\n