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Chandler’s lawyer, Michael Bolton, raised questions about the reliability of the record of the case for the prosecution filed by U.S. authorities in support of the extradition request. Bolton also argued no false representations were made by Chandler to obtain money from the investors, and said they were not victims, but incentivized investors who took risks in an attempt to make money.

The U.S. record of the case was “unreliable to an extreme degree” in painting investors as victims of fraud, Bolton told the court. “They were obviously victims of the economy and their own choices.”

Gibb-Carsley summarized the circumstances by which Chandler allegedly obtained investors’ funds, according to the U.S. authorities’ investigation, including one woman who allegedly lost $87,000 and the home in which she lived. In addition to pledging her home as collateral, Chandler requested the woman “give him a cash investment to assist with obtaining permits for the Hill Street property,” according to the record of the case.

The investor agreed, according to the record, and Chandler escorted her to banks in Long Beach and Los Alamitos, where she made a series of withdrawals and gave him $34,000 in cash.

About two weeks later, Chandler went to the woman’s home “upset,” and told her “he needed more money for the engineers,” according to the record. She “retrieved $40,000 in cash that was an inheritance from her mother that was stored at her home,” gave it to Chandler and asked for a receipt, which he said he would give her “later,” the record says.