Former Kaua'i mortgage broker James W. Lull admitted in court yesterday to defrauding as many as 50 victims out of as much as $30 million.

He faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 as well as payment of restitution to his victims of an estimated $20 million to $30 million.

Lull admitted his crimes to U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry Kurren and will be sentenced by District Judge Susan Oki Mollway Jan. 9.

"I fraudulently obtained funds from clients and other people on Kaua'i," Lull told Kurren.

He is free on $100,000 signature bond pending sentencing and left court yesterday without comment.

Peter Wolff, Lull's lawyer and the federal public defender for Hawai'i, also declined to comment.

Kurren said Lull may not work in the mortgage business or financial industry while he awaits sentencing.

Lull was manager of the U.S. Financial Mortgage Corp. office on Kaua'i from 1995 to 2006.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Claire Connors said Lull operated a "fraudulent scheme" from 2003 to 2006 in which his business clients and associates were duped out of millions of dollars.

Lull persuaded many U.S. Financial clients to invest in "side-deal" business opportunities that he promised would pay high rates of return.

"Once entrusted with the investors' money, Lull did not use the money he received as promised," the government charged Friday.

"In fact, Lull appropriated the money for his own purposes to the detriment of his investors," the U.S. attorney's office alleged.

Connors said Lull "is facing a fairly substantial amount of time" in prison because his offenses involved an "abuse of trust" and victimized a large number of people out of as much as $30 million.

Lull filed personal bankruptcy papers here in December 2006, listing more than $31 million in debts and $6.7 million in assets.

In accepting Lull's guilty plea, Kurren directed him to cooperate with bankruptcy court officials who are trying to locate and collect Lull's financial assets.

The court-appointed trustee overseeing the bankruptcy case, Ronald Kotoshirodo, was in court to hear Lull's guilty plea yesterday.

"He has a duty to cooperate with the trustee and we're hopeful that he'll be able to help us locate assets," Kotoshirodo said.

Attorneys in the bankruptcy case estimate Lull's debts to be as much as $50 million and finding and liquidating his assets to repay his creditors is a time-consuming, complex job, said Kotoshirodo.

Recently filed records in the bankruptcy case allege that Lull hid antiques and collectibles worth as much as $1 million from his creditors. Among the missing assets are a collection of as many as 200 custom-made pool cues, worth $250,000 to $500,000, as well as "trash cans full of uncut opals," according to documents filed in July by Kotoshirodo.

The pool cue collection allegedly included a $50,000 cue encrusted with opals custom-made for Lull by Paul Huebler, described as a "world-famous" craftsman in Missouri.

Lull allegedly stored some of the cues inside PVC pipes that he kept above a false ceiling in his Lihu'e mortgage brokerage office, according to an affidavit filed by one of his Kaua'i creditors, Peter Whalley.

Whalley said he was introduced to Lull by a mutual business associate, Donald Tipaldi, and invested $225,000 with Lull after being promised a 12 percent interest return on his money "in about two weeks."

When he didn't receive the money and began pressing Lull and Tipaldi for repayment, Whalley said, Tipaldi told him that he had received "a million dollars worth" of pool cues, opals and other collectibles from Lull that would "more than cover (Whalley's) debt and then some."

Whalley's brother, Rob Whalley, said in another sworn affidavit that he discussed selling some of the collectibles for Tipaldi, who told him that "he had about $1 million of opals and $200,000 to $300,000 of pool cues that he got from (Lull)."

Rob Whalley alleged that Tipaldi told him he "had trash cans full of uncut opals" received from Lull.

"I saw some cut opals in Mr. Tipaldi's possession but not the trash cans," Rob Whalley said in his affidavit.

He went on to say that he arranged for "world-renowned pool-cue authenticator Martyne Bachman" to fly to Kaua'i to authenticate and appraise the Lull collection.

Rob Whalley said the cues were valued at $250,000. Peter Whalley said he understood their value to be $500,000.

Rob Whalley said some of the cues were sold at the "International Cue Collectors" convention in Houston last fall and others are now offered for sale on the Internet.

Attempts to reach Tipaldi and his lawyer, Marshall Chinen, for comment were unsuccessful yesterday.

Kotoshirodo filed suit against Tipaldi in July, seeking return of "collectible pool cues, cut opals, uncut opals, Indian arrow heads, signed baseball cards ... and coins" that allegedly are assets of the estate.

In a response filed for Tipaldi in bankruptcy court last month, Chinen said that whatever personal property Tipaldi received from Lull was of "nominal value" and was received more than 90 days before the bankruptcy case was filed and therefore could not be claimed as assets by the trustee.