A Lake Tapps man this week was one of two Pierce County men indicted in a federal court with conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud.

Joseph G. Pascua, 49, of Lake Tapps and William C. Lange, 63, of Gug Harbor are both accused of allegedly bilking millions of dollars from investors in a pair of investment schemes revolving around building homes in areas of the country affected by Hurricane Katrina.

The two developers are also accused of using their companies to defraud investors in a precious metals mine in Alaska.

Pascua is the president of Black Sand Mine, Inc. (BSMI) while Lange is the president of Harbor Funding Group, Inc. (HFGI).

The charges were announced Jan. 26 in New York City.

According to the indictment, Pascua and Lange perpetrated an advance fee scheme by telling developers who had clients seeking to build houses in regions affected by the hurricane that HFGI had funds available to provide financing in exchange for a 10 percent advance fee.

However, according to the indictment, Pascua and Lange did not have the additional money, but kept the 10 percent fee, using the money to pay themselves and employees, take vacations and hunting trips, make mortgage payments on Lange’s house, pay Lange’s children though they did no work and funnel money to other businesses they owned.

The pair allegedly stole more than $9 million for more than 300 people through the scheme.

The pair are also accused of inducing people to invest in BSMI, which purported to own a large stake in a mining operation that was starting to mine gold and other precious metals in Alaska.

The accused allegedly told investors the mine was projected to gross $52 million per month in 2011 and that investor money would be used to pay expenses when instead, it allegedly went to Lange and Pascua and their families and employees

The men were charged on three counts, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud for the HGMI scheme, conspiracy to commit securities fraud and wire fraud for the BSMI scheme and an additional count of securities fraud for the BSMI scheme.”The defendants in this case are charged with executing two bold schemes to defraud their clients and investors of millions of dollars,” United States Attorney Loretta Lynch of the Eastern District of New York said in a press release. “Those who engage in such schemes are on notice that we will use all available resources to protect investors from fraud.”

The maximum term of imprisonment for each charge is 20 years.