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Securities and Exchange Commission officials charged three people on Wednesday with orchestrating a massive fraud scheme that bilked close to $10 million out of hundreds of people, including more than 125 Davis-Monthan Air Force Base personnel and other Tucsonans.

Meanwhile, a related complaint filed in Arizona against a former D-M airman connected to the scheme is scheduled to be heard in April.

James B. Duncan, Hendrix M. Montecastro and Maurice E. McLeod were named in the SEC complaint filed in federal court in Southern California, which alleges the three sold the promise of riches to military personnel and church members through real estate deals.

The complaint calls for the defendants to pay back the money they made from the scheme as well as civil penalties.

In Tucson, the trio from Southern California peddled their scheme through seminars shaded with Christian references, getting the pastor of one local church to extol the virtues of investing with Pacific Wealth LLC, according to the civil complaint from the nation's top investment regulator.

Operating under what SEC officials called a Ponzi scheme, the trio violated federal securities laws by telling people they would be investing in real estate contracts.

The money earned by the investors off the real estate contracts would then be used to make mortgage payments on investment homes purchased on their behalf, the trio told investors, according to an SEC press release.

But instead of using investors' money as they said they would, the trio used it to pay off mortgages on investment homes purchased by earlier investors, the complaint said.

Messages left with Duncan's and McLeod's attorneys weren't immediately returned, while Montecastro's attorney said he wasn't aware of the complaint.

The scheme, which relied on new investors to perpetuate itself, collapsed in 2006, with the SEC reporting personal losses at more than $10 million.

More than 125 Tucsonans invested in Pacific Wealth, with some saying they lost more than $400,000, according to a separate lawsuit filed in California.

The investors included about a dozen D-M airmen and several members of the Christian Faith Center, 4108 E. North St.

McLeod used his father-in-law, retired Tech Sgt. Ken Fraleigh, as a referral partner in Tucson, the SEC said.

Fraleigh, who worked at D-M and attended Christian Faith, wasn't implicated in the SEC complaint and hasn't been named in the California lawsuit.

Some fellow church members have said they don't believe Fraleigh was intentionally harming them and that he was misled by his son-in-law, who was president of the company.

However, Fraleigh and his wife are listed in a complaint filed with the Arizona Corporation Commission's Securities Division. In the state complaint, Fraleigh is accused of knowingly defrauding Tucson investors through Pacific Wealth.

A message left with Fraleigh's attorney was not immediately returned.

A hearing on the matter is scheduled for April 28, said Rebecca Wilder, who is with Arizona's securities division.

The news of the SEC charges brought some small relief to Lydia Peltier, who said she and her husband lost $176,000 worth of equity in their home because of the scheme.

They were slated to lose their house until a judge issued an injunction that barred the house's sale until after the various court cases are settled, Peltier said.

The Peltiers agreed to use the equity in their house to invest in other properties but never got a penny back.

"They scammed everybody," she said. "My home was sold in a fraudulent way."

Another person who invested in Pacific Wealth said she was hoping the charges would help get her money back. "We've been waiting for that, because that's going to help our case," said Noemi Barrios, referring to the California lawsuit.

Barrios said she lost close to $80,000 worth of equity in her home because of Pacific Wealth.

Peltier and Barrios learned of the investment plan through the Christian Faith Center. Barrios said she stopped attending the church, upset by what she saw as manipulation.

During at least one presentation in Tucson, Fraleigh's son-in-law, McLeod, referred to "God's will" in the context of making business decisions," the SEC complaint said.