Sonoma real estate mogul Ken Mattson faces allegations of financial wrongdoing. Here’s what we know

Over the past decade, developer and investor Ken Mattson and his longtime business partner and friend Tim LeFever have assembled one of the largest real estate empires in Sonoma County, spanning more than 100 properties in Sonoma Valley.

The portfolio is a cross section of commercial parcels, residential properties and well-known businesses. Some of those properties have been left to sit dormant, in disrepair or with construction stalled, for years.

This month, Sonoma County sued a limited partnership controlled by Mattson for failing to carry out building code requirements at adjacent properties along Highway 12 in Sonoma Valley.

And now there are clearer signs LeFever Mattson, the overarching business partnership, is imploding. LeFever last week told investors he’d informed both federal regulators and the U.S. Department of Justice of financial wrongdoing by Mattson.

LeFever did not respond Monday to a request for comment. Mattson did not respond to messages.

Here’s what we know at this point.

Ken Mattson and the man accusing him go back a long way

Ken Mattson and Tim LeFever had been lifelong friends and business partners before the partnership recently came unglued. They were classmates at Cordova High School in Rancho Cordova, and again at UC Berkeley. LeFever was the one with political ardor — he twice ran for Congress as a Republican. Mattson, reportedly, was the one with financial savvy.

Rift has to do with alleged unauthorized collection of investment money

In recent emails, LeFever hit a set of investors with a bombshell.

They had not purchased interests in Divi Divi Tree LP, an IRA fund established by the LeFever Mattson company, as Mattson had told them. Rather, LeFever alleged, Mattson had stashed their money in personal accounts. Anyone now seeking to cash out of the fund could be out of luck. In a subsequent email, LeFever noted that the irregularities go beyond Divi Divi Tree.

LeFever is working hard to distance himself from Mattson

The two men have built an empire together through real estate investment. But LeFever’s recent emails to investors raise troubling questions about the arrangement and status of those holdings.

LeFever’s allegations point directly at Mattson.

“None of the purchase price you paid to Mr. Mattson was received by Divi Divi, LeFever Mattson or any other person than Mr. Mattson,” he wrote to investors in an email obtained by The Press Democrat. He said Mattson had agreed to indemnify the larger company.

Implosion lines up with recent events

As Mattson and LeFever’s stake in Sonoma Valley real estate grew in recent years, many people in the valley began to view their growing portfolio — totaling at least 116 properties valued at a quarter-billion dollars in March 2023, according to a Press Democrat investigation — with suspicion.

Some of those staunch critics and neighborhood activists formed a grassroots group, Wake Up Sonoma, to raise alarm over what they call a land grab by LeFever Mattson.

In March, the Sonoma Index-Tribune reported that a handful of Mattson’s 100-plus properties in Sonoma Valley faced at least $1.2 million in liens and back taxes. Mattson stepped down as CEO of the LeFever Mattson company in April.

And this month, Sonoma County sued KS Mattson Partners, a limited partnership Mattson controls, over a pair of perpetually under-construction homes at 70 and 74 Moon Mountain, registered as four separate parcels, that have served as the symbols of the neglect his sharpest critics say he has imposed on the valley.

Mattson may be subject to legal action

In his most recent email to investors, dated May 17, LeFever said he has informed both the federal Security and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Attorney’s Office of his former friend’s alleged wrongdoings. He also made it clear that LeFever Mattson’s attorneys would work with those of individual victims to seek restitution.

You can reach Phil Barber at 707-521-5263 or [email protected]. On X (Twitter) @Skinny_Post.