Prosecutors on Tuesday dismissed a fraud case against an Orange County businessman who died in April.
Robert Stoddard II of San Clemente was facing 15 felony charges of grand theft, theft from an elder adult and money laundering.
The 64-year-old Orange County businessman pleaded not guilty to stealing $110,000 from two clients. Stoddard, who was terminally ill with cancer, died April 7, his attorney Dyke Huish said.
Orange County sheriff's investigators began investigating Stoddard in March 2018. Two women who worked with the defendant's San Juan Capistrano company, the Stoddard Group, said they gave him two checks, for $90,000 and $20,000, to be invested in annuities, according to court papers. Instead, Stoddard pocketed the money, investigators said.
Prosecutors later added more charges for 18 victims with losses exceeding $1 million.
Stoddard was a life insurance agent who was accused of stealing about $1 million in insurance premiums and real estate investments. At least 14 of the alleged victims were seniors older than 65.
"Mr. Stoddard was trying to figure out a way to pay back the victims, but unfortunately he had cancer and was extremely limited in what he could do over the last nine months," Huish said. "He wanted to try to pay back all of the people involved."
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