Marvin Cooper, alleged operator of a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme that targeted deaf investors, may have been planning to abscond to Panama and tried last month to borrow $534,187 on Hawai'i real estate purchased with investors' money, according to papers filed by government lawyers yesterday in federal court.

But an attorney for Cooper, Michael Glenn, said his client is innocent of wrongdoing.

"Nobody's been defrauded," Glenn said. "We're working on an amicable settlement in which the investors will get all their assets back."

U.S District Judge Michael Seabright yesterday finalized the appointment of an outside receiver, Barry Fisher, to take control of Cooper's company, Billion Coupons Inc.

In a sworn declaration filed yesterday morning, Fisher said his preliminary review of company records turned up papers at Cooper's Kaimuki home and business office that showed that Cooper used the property as collateral for a mortgage loan application submitted Feb. 8, 2009.

"Documents filed by the SEC (U.S. Securities Exchange Commission indicate BCI (Billion Coupons, Inc.) funds were used to purchase this property," Fisher said in his declaration.

Fisher stopped the loan before it had been funded, he said.

Fisher also found an $80,000 check written by Cooper as down payment for an $800,000 purchase of real estate in Panama, his declaration said.

The property purchase was canceled and the uncashed check was sent to Fisher, according to the government.

Fisher said he also discovered e-mail sent to Cooper last month in which a person named Jamie Clark discussed Cooper's "proposed move to Panama."

The e-mail said that moving to Panama would allow Cooper to "resume the OPM (Other People's Money) business without nasty headaches from those bastards from Wall Street and their cronies."

Judge Seabright appointed Fisher as receiver of BCI after the Securities Exchange Commission and the U.S. Commodities Futures Exchange Commission sued Cooper here last month.

The suits accused Cooper, who is deaf, of bilking deaf investors out of almost $3 million and spending $1.4 million of the funds on personal expenses.

The government agencies accused Cooper of operating a Ponzi scheme, in which earnings paid to early investors come from money raised from later investors.

Paul Alston, attorney for Fisher, yesterday said Cooper's operation was "a typical Ponzi scheme."

Early investors received "what looked to be lucrative returns on their investments," but later investors did not, Alston said.

"We are going to be gathering assets (of Cooper and BCI) and looking at who received money," Alston said. "We are looking to get some or all of the investors' money back by liquidating assets bought with the proceeds of the scheme."