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BALTIMORE – More than 1,000 people were defrauded out of about $70 million by a group advertising the dream of homeownership in what turned out to be a nightmare Ponzi scheme, federal and Maryland officials said Monday.

Five officers for Laurel, Md.-based Metro Dream Homes company are accused of tricking homeowners into pouring money into the business with the promise that the revenue would be used to pay off their mortgages. The scheme ran from 2005 until October 2007, authorities said.

Prosecutors say the company marketed the mortgage program in seminars at luxury hotels in Maryland, Washington and Beverly Hills, Calif. An investor had to put up a minimum of $50,000 for each home. The company was then supposed to pay off their mortgages within five to seven years.

“The name Dream Homes was truly a nightmare for so many people in the state of Maryland,” said Douglas F. Gansler, the state’s attorney general.