After four years of being a soft touch for Brenda Willingham's cajoling, pleading and slick sales talk, Steve Stromsoe decided in October he was tired of playing the dupe.

"It was kind of like a chess game, and I lost," said Stromsoe, whose investments in the Willinghams' strawberry businesses date back to 1999.

"She had no remorse. She'd beg and cry, but she'd walk out knowing she had your last cent. I can't believe I fell for it."

Stromsoe, who sells and manages real estate in Oxnard, approached the Ventura County District Attorney's Office with evidence that helped investigators tie up a 2-year-old fraud investigation culminating in the Dec. 4 arrest of Willingham and her husband, Dennis.

The Willinghams, who remain in jail on $2 million bail each, are scheduled to be arraigned today on 73 felony charges related to how they raised money to finance their strawberry businesses starting in 1998.

The hearing, which is to include a bail-reduction motion, is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. in courtroom 11 in the Hall of Justice at Ventura County Government Center.

Though the district attorney's case focuses on more than $8 million invested by at least 36 investors, the couple is suspected of having defrauded hundreds of people in several states of tens of millions of dollars.

"My investigation has shown that a large amount of newly invested money was used to pay off earlier investors in a manner typical of a "ponzi" scheme," District Attorney's Office investigator Greg Askay said in documents supporting the arrest warrants. "My investigation has also shown that investor funds were expended in a manner that was inconsistent with what investors were told upon making their investment."

To assist in the arrest, Stromsoe said, he agreed to participate in a sting operation that would confirm suspicions that the Willinghams in recent months continued to solicit money in violation of numerous state laws and regulations.

He arranged for Brenda to meet him to discuss a friend's interest in investing with her. After county officials arrested her, investigators concocted a story to lure Dennis Willingham to the site and then arrested him.

Angry investors had begun complaining to the District Attorney's office on Nov. 8, 2001, a few days after the Ventura County Star reported the Willinghams faced dozens of civil suits related to their Oxnard berry brokering business, Sunshine Fresh Produce, and a Santa Maria strawberry growing operation known as Willingham Farms.

The Willinghams, who live in Ventura, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection from their creditors on Nov. 20, 2001.

The filing estimated the couple had assets of $1.06 million and debts of $35.5 million, owed to more than 600 people and groups. More than 230 creditors later filed claims totaling $14 million.

Askay said in his declaration that he began interviewing investors and pouring over the Willinghams' bank records that Brian Condon, an attorney in one of the civil suits, had obtained before the bankruptcy put his client's case on hold. Askay eventually obtained warrants for additional bank records.

Askay's analysis indicated the Willinghams allegedly took advantage of electronic transfers, shifting investor money in and out of bank accounts at dizzying speed, in one case appearing to pay back one investor, Martin Stroiman, with his own money.

"I was very surprised when I was told that," said Stroiman, owner of Builders Funding Corp., a San Diego-based mortgage banker. "We're fairly sophisticated investors and the policy is that we don't make a new investment until we've gotten our previous money back. I don't know how this could have happened."

Other investors told Askay they never would have given money to the Willinghams had they been informed of the huge number of other investors for such a small family operation, that the couple had lawsuits and judgements pending and that their business and personal funds would be commingled in one account.

"I don't know whether she is a die-hard con artist or whether she fell into this little by little and got in over her head," said Newbury Park resident Jim Brizendine, who, with his wife, Sally, was emboldened to dip into their retirement savings after doing well on early small investments in Sunshine Fresh Produce in 1999.

The couple, whose case comprises two of the felony counts against the Willinghams, ended up losing their nest egg.

Condon, who is convinced the Willinghams concocted a fairly elaborate scam from the beginning and hid money with accomplices, is concerned millions of dollars will slip away if prosecutors don't expand their investigation beyond the current charges.

"I know the Willinghams are not stupid, and they're not sloppy," he said. "What they've been trying to do for the past year is give people the impression that they were hard up and desperate, when in fact they are not."

"Money just doesn't go to money heaven. It goes somewhere."