RENO - Monday afternoon the owner of a failed mortgage firm faced a crowd of angry investors--some of whom said they stood to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in construction loans gone bad.

They had questions. She had just one answer.

Questions for Marcie Benvin from attorneys and investors amounted to an impressive list of potential charges. Why did some documents appear to have been altered? Did Benvin sign anyone else's name to them? Why were some just missing? The answer was always the same. Benvin stuck to a script provided by her attorney. She invoked her Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination.

Benvin's company, Cetus Mortgages, specialized in "hard money" loans for home construction. In July, the state seized the company after investors complained Cetus was not paying them, that their names had been forged and construction projects remained idle even though investors money had been loaned to developers. Cetus filed for bankruptcy and state regulators and the federal bankruptcy trustee have been trying to unravel a $60 million dollar mess ever since.

The former president of the state Association of Mortgage Brokers did read a statement blaming the problems of her company on the economy and promising to work to try to return as much as possible to her investors who appeared to be in no mood to believe her.

"We're pretty much disgusted," said Domenick Graziano. "Her opening statement was an outright lie. She should do a lot of jail time and lose a lot of sleep as far as I'm concerned."

Graziano said he will likely lose hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Some of the investors said they had invested most of their retirement funds.