A disbarred attorney who lived in Beverly Hills was sentenced Wednesday to 25 years behind bars for duping investors out of about $18.4 million — while he was completing a sentence in a prior criminal case — by falsely claiming that his companies invested in high-profit hemp farms and cannabis-infused retail products as well as a sham bottling business.
Mark Roy Anderson, 70, who was living in Beverly Hills while on supervised release after serving more than 11 years in federal prison in the earlier case, pleaded guilty in April 2024 to two federal wire fraud counts, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
According to his plea agreement, Anderson engaged in separate schemes committed shortly after his release from federal prison but while on home confinement and, later, while on supervised release for a previous fraud conviction.
In the first scheme, from June 2020 to April 2021, Anderson tricked investors into providing funding for his company, called Harvest Farm Group, to harvest and process hemp grown on his farm into medical-grade cannabidiol isolate — a chemical found in marijuana — to be sold for a substantial profit, papers filed in Los Angeles federal court show.
Anderson convinced investors to invest in Harvest Farm Group by falsely representing that, through the company, he owned and operated a hemp farm in Kern County. He also lied that he had already completed successful and profitable harvests of hemp from the farm. He further falsely said he was using his own machinery and equipment to convert the hemp into CBD isolate and Delta 8, a psychoactive substance that, like CBD isolate, could be used in consumer products ranging from olive oil to body cream.
Anderson attempted to maintain an appearance of trustworthiness by taking steps to assure potential investors that Harvest Farms Group was legitimate and he “was not the ‘Mark Roy Anderson’ with multiple prior fraud convictions,” court papers state.
In the second scheme, which ran from April 2021 to May 2023, Anderson deceived investors by soliciting money for Bio Pharma and Verta Bottling, two of his sham companies, by claiming that these businesses successfully manufactured, bottled and packaged commercial products.
Specifically, Bio Pharma purportedly manufactured and sold products infused with CBD, including products such as CBD-infused avocado oil, olive oil, pain cream, gummies, tequila and chili oil. Anderson also claimed that Verta Bottling manufactured and sold beverages and a variety of food products.
Anderson falsely stated that his bottling companies owned and possessed millions of dollars’ worth of assets, including — in Bio Pharma’s case — hemp biomass, CBD isolate, CBD oil, and — in Verta Bottling’s case — manufacturing equipment and an assignable lease for a warehouse to manufacture and sell its products.
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The indictment states that Anderson “concealed that he had been convicted of multiple federal and state felony crimes, including mail fraud, wire fraud, grand theft, forgery, preparing false evidence, and money laundering, and concealed that he was still serving a criminal sentence and still on supervised release at the time he was soliciting investments.”
The indictment in the 2011 fraud and money laundering case said Anderson had been disbarred from the practice of law by the state of Nevada.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Anderson used investor money in the current case for personal expenses and has agreed to forfeit his ill-gotten gains, including 15 cars — one of them a Ferrari — and real estate in Ojai.
In total, Anderson solicited more than $18.8 million from 45 victims for both schemes, causing victims to lose about $18.4 million, prosecutors said.
