Orange County Man Arrested on Federal Indictment Charging Him with Stock Options Trading Swindle of His Family and Friends

SANTA ANA, California - An Irvine man was arrested today on a nine-count federal grand jury indictment charging him with running a Ponzi scheme that conned victims - family and friend included - by persuading them to invest in his stock options trading fund, but then using most of the money to pay for personal items, including trying to buy coastal real estate.

Todd Douglas Mulliner, 61, surrendered to law enforcement officials this morning. He is expected to make his initial appearance and be arraigned this afternoon in United States District Court in Santa Ana.

Mulliner is charged with four counts of wire fraud, two counts of mail fraud, one count of engaging in monetary transactions in criminally derived proceeds, one count of bank fraud, and one count of aggravated identity theft.

According to the indictment, Mulliner was the president and CEO of DauVC1, an Irvine-based company, and from July 2018 to March 2021, he falsely represented himself to be an expert investor with a successful system for trading stock options.

Through DauVC1, Mulliner obtained money from investors by soliciting from individuals, usually family, friends, and acquaintances, to buy his company's shares. At Mulliner's direction, victim-investors sometimes transferred funds from their retirement accounts. Mulliner told his victims that DauVC1 was a venture capital company engaged in stock options trading, that they were buying an interest in the company, and they would share in the company's trading profits.

Mulliner provided investors with a share purchase agreement, which outlined the terms of the investment by falsely stating that the victims' funds would be used only for stock options trading. He further claimed he would receive a 20% commission on trading profits that DauVC1 generated.

To induce additional victims to invest in DauVC1, Mulliner told a series of lies directly and through intermediaries via email, telephone, and in-person conversations. Namely, his proprietary system for trading stock options limited risk to protect investors' principal, that DauVC1 was producing positive weekly yields, and investor funds would be used to trade in stock options.

In fact, Mulliner's system for trading stock options resulted in him losing the majority of investors' principal that he actually traded. He also used most of investors' funds to pay earlier investors monthly payments based on DauVC1's purported profits and to repay earlier investors who wanted to withdraw their money from the company.

He lured new investors and prevented current investors from withdrawing their money by emailing fabricated weekly balance statements that showed positive yields and increased balances.

Mulliner also used investor funds to pay family members and the attempted purchase of a beachfront home in Sunset Beach. He also concealed from investors his criminal history, which includes a felony conviction for securities fraud.

In January 2021, Mulliner emailed investors and falsely claimed that, due to an upcoming regulatory rule change, DauVC1 would cease operations and promising investors that their account balances would be disbursed by the following month. Mulliner then made excuses for why he missed his proposed deadline for account balance disbursements. He never paid some investors the promised return on investment and never returned their principal investment.

Law enforcement believes Mulliner caused at least six victims to pay his company approximately $290,000.

In April 2021, Mulliner stole an $8,400 COVID-19 pandemic U.S. Treasury Economic Impact Payment check from the mail and forged the signatures of two victims on the back of the check, endorsing the check to himself as the president of DauVC.

An indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent until and unless proven guilty in court.

If convicted, Mulliner would face a statutory maximum sentence of 30 years in federal prison on the bank fraud count, up to 20 years in federal prison for each wire fraud and mail fraud count, up to 10 years in federal prison for the money laundering count, and a mandatory two-year consecutive prison term for aggravated identity theft.

The FBI is investigating this matter.

Special Assistant United States Attorney Ryan G. Adams of the Orange County Office is prosecuting this case.