Judge: Vaughan's a liar, ran ponzi

Albuquerque, N.M. {KRQE} - Bankrupt realtor Doug Vaughan's been call a liar, cheater and crook before, but Thursday it was a federal judge doing the name calling.

Dozens of pages, with one central theme, Doug Vaughan's a liar. The bankruptcy judge used hard words and plenty of them in his thirty-eight page ruling.

He called Vaughan out, saying the former owner of one of the city's biggest real estate companies did run a ponzi scheme and bilked people out of millions.

The paperwork shows Vaughan's companies, which investigators say were a front for his scheme, lost money for years and started losing a million a month in 2008.

Despite those losses the judge says Vaughan loaned himself more than five million from the company.

He also borrowed 74 million dollars from charter bank which failed earlier this year, it's now under new ownership.

Last week Vaughan gave the judge a one page handwritten plan to pay back investors. He wanted to start a new company, but the judge basically said no one in his right mind would ever invest in it since everyone knows he ran a textbook ponzi scheme.

So what does this mean for Vaughan? He's lost everything.
Converting the bankruptcy to chapter seven means the u.s. trustee will take control of all his assets. They include his multi million dollar mansion, his Ferrari, Harley, Jaguar and a 100 grand worth of jewelry.

The trustee will sell off the assets and try to get as much as possible for investors and creditors.
 

The Securities and Exchange Commission has already filed a civil case against Vaughan, and a criminal investigation is on-going.

Vaughan's former company, Vaughan Realtors is also in bankruptcy. It's doors have been shut for weeks.