Marin County prosecutors are investigating a once-prominent real estate lending firm after its apparent sudden collapse panicked its investors, who say they have been told most of the more than $100 million they have tied up in the company is likely gone.
Deputy District Attorney Sean Kensinger said his office was looking into complaints about Pacific Private Money Inc., a Novato-based alternative real estate mortgage and investment firm run by Mark Hanf, a Tiburon entrepreneur who has previously been disciplined by the California Bureau of Real Estate.
Kensinger, who heads the DA’s Consumer Protection Unit, declined to comment on the nature of the complaints, but said potential victims of “unlawful business practices or consumer fraud” in Marin County are encouraged to come forward to authorities…