Jared Huffman

Several state and federal agencies have joined the investigation into Pacific Private Money, a Novato real estate lending company that has left hundreds of investors wondering if they will ever see their money again.

U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman sent a letter on Wednesday to the heads of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the FBI, calling on them to “thoroughly investigate Pacific Private Money and their leadership, including CEO Mark Hanf, for any fraud that may have been committed.”

RELATED: Why do large real estate fraud cases keep happening in the North Bay?

Hanf, a Tiburon resident, could not be reached for comment.

Huffman, a Democrat who lives in San Rafael, asked the two agencies to “pursue whatever legal or enforcement actions — civil or criminal — are necessary and most likely to secure and recover remaining assets on behalf of the harmed investors.”

Huffman wrote that he had heard from numerous constituents who invested their life savings or retirement funds with Pacific Private Money and now face the possibility their money was “negligently managed, or worse, perpetrated by a fraud.”

Dennis Xifaras of Burlingame, who is trying to recover $250,000 of the $450,000 he invested with Pacific Private Money, said, “Several agencies — the SEC, the FBI and the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation — are already actively investigating.”

Marin County District Attorney’s Office confirmed in February that it had launched an investigation.

In an email Thursday, Deputy District Attorney Sean Kensinger wrote, “I can confirm that pursuant to our investigation, the Marin County District Attorney’s Office has coordinated with the San Francisco Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation who has also opened an investigation into the activities of PPM, its entities and funds.”

Kensinger wrote that to assist both agencies with the collection of information from potential victims, the FBI had established a victims’ portal where information may be submitted directly to the investigating agencies. He said that last month, the District Attorney’s Office began directing known Pacific Private Money complainants to the FBI website to fill out victim information forms and submit documentation.

On March 16, the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation suspended the lending license of Pacific Private Money for 30 business days while the agency conducts an investigation. The license allows lenders and brokers to make and broker consumer and commercial loans.

The two-page order said the real estate finance company halted monthly distributions to investors and suspended all investor withdrawals in October or November. Company representatives told the agency on March 9 that it “experienced a severe liquidity crunch in December, leaving it without sufficient funds to continue investor distributions,” the document said.

Pacific Private Money represented that it had tens of millions of dollars of assets under management.

Xifaras has said that he received a letter from Pacific Private Money’s former chief operating officer, Nam Phan, in December notifying him that the company was pausing all loan redemptions until further notice. In January, Xifaras received an email from Bill Brinkman, a restructuring and turnaround specialist, who wrote that he had been hired by Pacific Private Money “in connection with financial challenges it was experiencing.”

Brinkman stated that the company was operating with “critically minimal cash balances” and that its ability to continue operations was at risk. He added that he had no estimate of the “expected range of recoveries for the investors in the various funds.”

In his letters to the SEC and FBI, Huffman also urged the appointment of a court-supervised receiver as soon as possible.

“A receivership would help ensure that a qualified fiduciary takes control of the company’s assets, halts further losses, preserves remaining value, and conducts an orderly review and potential recovery of the funds for investors,” Huffman wrote. “It is of the utmost importance to be able to recover as much funding as possible.”