Board Game Maker Ordered to Repay $245,000 in Fraud : Courts: Dana Point businesswoman turns over $48,000, but is told to give investors full restitution or go to prison.

LAGUNA NIGUEL —  A businesswoman who creates board games was ordered by a Superior Court judge Friday to pay $245,000 in restitution to investors in connection with a Michael Jackson game that authorities allege was a fraud.

Stacia Alden, 47, turned over a check for $48,400 to Judge Pamela Iles at the hearing but faces a sentence of up to two years in prison if she fails to make full restitution.

Alden, who pleaded no contest last November to 16 counts of securities fraud, has until an Oct. 14 hearing to pay the remaining $196,600 in restitution, Iles ruled.

Although Iles said she’s tired of hearing “the check’s in the mail,” she gave Alden one last chance, after months of delay, to make full restitution.

The judge said she was ready to hand down a sentence in the case Friday but postponed a decision when friends and business associates of Alden produced the check for $48,400.

“(The judge) just wants to give her every possible chance to pay the people back,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Joseph D’Agostino said.

Sheriff’s investigators arrested the Dana Point businesswoman in April, 1992, alleging she convinced people throughout Southern California to invest up to $285,000 in the “Michael Jackson Infinity” game, despite her knowledge that a tentative deal to manufacture the game had fallen through.

Authorities said sales of the limited partnerships occurred between July, 1989 and June, 1990.

As part of a plea bargain struck in November, the judge said she would essentially dismiss the case if Alden makes restitution to all investors of the Michael Jackson board game who want their money back, D’Agostino said.

If no restitution is made, the judge said Alden, the creator of an Elvis Presley game and 14 others based on the lives of the rich and famous, would face prison.

Alden’s lawyer, Scott B. Well, said his client is “ready, willing and able” to repay investors but believes that terms of the plea bargain required her only to pay back about $57,000 to those cited in the criminal complaint.

Well said Alden entered the no-contest plea only as a way to pay back “disgruntled” investors, and maintains her innocence.

He added that Alden, who is free on bail, believed she had a “good faith” deal to manufacture the Michael Jackson game and believes it could still be a “viable” product that some will find a “sound investment.”

“There are a lot of people who believe in her,” said Ann Wertzberger, a business associate and friend.

Alleged victims and former business associates in the case, however, testified Friday that Alden deceived them and should be punished.

The judge indicated a willingness to consider lowering the restitution if it could be proved that some investors don’t seek repayment.