Sonoma developer evicted from home amid fraud case

A Sonoma County real estate investor indicted for defrauding investors through a Ponzi scheme is getting evicted from his sprawling Sonoma hills estate, which he allegedly bought with their money.

The agreement, approved by Sonoma County Superior Court Commissioner Daniel Chester on Thursday, forces Mattson and his wife to leave the 50-acre property by June 15. It also hands the $6 million home over to the bankruptcy estate overseeing Mattson’s former company, LeFever-Mattson, after it filed for Chapter 11 in 2024. The agreement was first reported by the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.

Mattson and his business partner, Timothy LeFever, quickly made a name for themselves by buying up a large portfolio of properties in Sonoma County worth $146 million. In May 2025, a federal grand jury charged Mattson with seven counts of wire fraud, as well as money laundering and obstruction of justice. LeFever has not been charged with any crimes and has said that Mattson acted alone.

Mattson has pleaded not guilty to the charges, but  is expected to plead guilty to one count of fraud, which could land him in prison for a dozen years.

Many of those caught up in the scheme were middle-income retirees who invested much of their life savings with Mattson, thinking they were purchasing shares of properties. Prosecutors say that Mattson instead spent the money on himself, including on a $9.9 million Piedmont mansion, cars, and the Sonoma hills home.

A bankruptcy judge is overseeing the liquidations of remaining Mattson-LeFever properties and will use the proceeds to reimburse creditors and investors.

The bankruptcy estate needed Mattson and his wife, Stacy, out of the property before they could sell it.

Mattson returned to the Castle Road estate last year after relatives posted a $4 million bail. That the couple still lived in the home, even after the indictment, was a sore point among investors.

“We’re trying to keep our home, and he’s still living in a mansion that he used our money to buy,” Maria Crane, a Santa Rosa resident who, with her husband, invested hundreds of thousands of dollars with Mattson, previously told the Chronicle.

Investors’ attorneys have argued that after the Mattsons lost control of KS Mattson Partners, the entity that owned the Castle Road home, they should have started paying fair market rent of $20,000 to keep living there. 

But the Mattsons’ attorney fought back, arguing that they were entitled to live at the property under a “caretaker arrangement” in which they provide maintenance and property management services rather than rent, which they valued at $80,000 per year, the Press Democrat reported….