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Maynard Weldon Moreland is a well known CPA with a vast rolodex and police say he used his contacts to convince clients he'd invest their money in local real estate.
"It appears Mr. Moreland was depositing the money into his own checking account and spending the money, about $30,000 a month on his own personal life style," says Livermore Police Lt. Matt Sarsfield.
"I was his business partner and I had no knowledge of it," says Emily Bologna-Griffin, his former business partner.
Bologna-Griffin is shocked by her former business partners' arrest. Until January, the two owned an accounting and consulting company together. Bologna-Griffin is sure many of the victims are some of the firm's clients. She found discrepancies in their tax returns.
"When I confronted Weldon about them, he told me he'd get back to me, that he was on his way out to a meeting and he never returned. That was on March 24th," says Bologna-Griffin.
That was about the same time investors stopped getting any kind checks and Moreland's neighbors noticed he had disappeared. A former client and neighbor, who didn't want to be identified on camera, says he stopped using Moreland because he wasn't happy with the service.
"As soon as we saw things weren't going our way, we severed that tie. I would hope other folks would've seen that coming as well," says the former client.
Regardless, they didn't and police think Moreland's victims were blinded by trust. The suspect was born and raised in Livermore. He was the past president of the Chamber of Commerce, CFO for the Tri-Valley Business Council, and even the treasurer for the city of Livermore.
Moreland remains in custody. He has not posted his $290,000 bail.
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