Authorities charged Maria “Dulce Pino” Dickerson for running a Ponzi scheme she allegedly used to fund a lavish lifestyle of private jet trips to Las Vegas, designer shopping sprees, and luxe vacations that she flaunted on social media.
An indictment unsealed this week alleges Dickerson, 47, registered a business in 2020 in California, the same year she won a Ms. Woman Nevada pageant. She named the business Creative Legal Fundings, which was a ripoff of a similarly named legitimate business that Dickerson allegedly catfished her investors with. She told potential victims her business loaned money to attorneys to fund personal injury lawsuits and promised fixed rates of return, authorities alleged. She also claimed to have financial backing from two high-powered executives, including the CEO of a multinational casino company.
None of it was true, according to the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which both charged Dickerson with varying types of fraud. Dickerson also posted extensively on social media, showing herself on private jets, with luxury goods and competing in adult beauty pageants. Dickerson actually won a Ms. Elite Nevada pageant during the time her Ponzi scheme was allegedly ongoing.
Authorities claim her jet-set beauty queen image was meant to deceive investors into giving her money. Dickerson then spent millions on herself, according to the indictment. In 2021, she paid $93,000 for a Mercedes-Benz GLE350, and another $150,000 in 2022 for a Mercedes-Benz EQS V4. She also spent thousands at casinos and bought a sprawling mansion in Sacramento for $1 million in cash and spent $30,000 filling it with new furniture, the court documents show.
Dickerson, who is Filipina American, targeted other Filipinos in her deceits, authorities alleged, and she used new investor funds to pay earlier investors to keep the Ponzi scheme going. She collected about $10 million total from 140 investors, according to the indictment. Last year, dozens of people sued Dickerson in Washington to try to recoup their investments, which ranged from $5,000 to $145,000. Filipina actress Rita Magdalena was ensnared in the Ponzi scheme, and posted on Instagram that many of her friends in San Diego were also friends of Dickerson’s, which led people to believe that her claims were legit.
“Never trust anyone,” Magdalena wrote last year.
Dickerson now faces a litany of 24 counts of wire fraud, seven counts of money laundering and a securities fraud charge. According to the Department of Justice, she could face up to 50 years in prison and nearly $13 million in fines and penalties.
“As alleged, Creative Legal Fundings’ operations were neither creative, nor legal. This was nothing more than fraud perpetrated against retail investors, many of whom were members of the Filipino-American community,” said Monique Winkler, director of the SEC’s San Francisco Regional Office in a statement.
Dickerson’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.