Indicted Ken Mattson Sonoma real estate mogul must leave Sonoma luxury estate by June 15
Ken and Stacy Mattson have until June 15 to vacate the lavish home they’ve been occupying in the hills overlooking Sonoma.
That’s the upshot of an agreement signed by the once-prosperous couple and the bankruptcy estate of LeFever Mattson — the company Ken Mattson co-owned and managed with Tim LeFever, before they lost control of it through Chapter 11.
The agreement was approved by Sonoma County Superior Court Commissioner Daniel Chester at a May 21 unlawful detainer hearing.
The 50-acre estate, with a market value the bankruptcy attorneys have estimated at $6.85 million, was originally owned by KS Mattson Partners, a separate company controlled by Ken and Stacy Mattson. But the two parallel bankruptcy cases have been consolidated, giving the current LeFever Mattson trustees control of the property.
June 15, coincidentally, is also when Ken Mattson is due back in federal court to change his plea in a federal indictment.
Mattson pleaded not guilty after he was charged a year ago with seven counts of wire fraud and one count each of money laundering and obstruction of justice. Federal prosecutors accused him of operating a “classic Ponzi scheme.”
He is now expected to plead guilty to one count of fraud, with a sentence of up to 12 years in prison.
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Mattson family home surveillance footage seized by FBI and included in court documents
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Real estate investor Ken Mattson moves through his home on Castle Road outside Sonoma in May 2024. Federal prosecutors accuse Mattson and family members of purging evidence at that time, two days before the FBI raided the house. (Mattson family home surveillance footage seized by FBI and included in court documents)
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Ken and Stacy Mattson both appeared via Zoom at the May 21 superior court hearing, as did their attorney in the unlawful detainer case, Fair Oaks-based James Arrasmith.
Arrasmith did not respond to a request for comment.
Chester, the court commissioner, set a settlement review date for July 2.
The legal action in Santa Rosa is expected to override a separate process underway in federal court, where the plaintiffs were attempting to use a section of the U.S. bankruptcy code known as “turnover of property” “to pry the Mattsons out of the house.
LeFever Mattson Inc. and KS Mattson Partners between them acquired well over 200 real estate properties. Those assets have either been sold out of bankruptcy or are heading in that direction, with the money going into a trust for potential victims.
The bankruptcy estate can’t list and sell the Castle Road property until the Mattsons have vacated.
That has made their continued occupancy a bone of contention among Ken Mattson’s hundreds of investors, many of them retirees on fixed incomes. Many of them are quick to note that the Mattsons haven’t paid rent since they lost control of KS Mattson Partners in June 2025.
Attorneys representing the committee of unsecured creditors in the consolidated bankruptcy — a group appointed by U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Charles Novack to advocate for investors — estimate fair market value for renting the site at no less than $20,000 per month.
Those attorneys sent Ken and Stacy Mattson a rental agreement in January, followed by a 60-day eviction notice on Feb. 2.
The Mattsons framed the situation quite differently.
In a legal answer filed March 31, they contended their occupancy of the Castle Road property is guided by a longstanding “caretaker arrangement” under which the couple provides full-time maintenance, property management and “fire mitigation services” in lieu of rent. The Mattsons put the value of these services at about $80,000 per year.
“This arrangement was known to and acquiesced in” by the plaintiffs, according to the Mattsons’ answer.
The bankruptcy plaintiffs called the Mattsons’ assertions “wholly unsupported,” noting the lack of any lease, license or caretaker agreement documenting such an arrangement.
KS Mattson Partners bought the Castle Road parcel for about $6.5 million in 2021.
Another valuable property once occupied by the Mattsons, a mansion in the East Bay enclave of Piedmont that was designed by famed architect Julia Morgan, recently sold for $8.4 million.
As the eviction process plays out, the bankruptcy cases have entered a new phase. The liquidation plan, overwhelmingly approved by investors and confirmed by Judge Novack, officially went into effect May 14.
That means wronged investors are another step closer to being compensated.
During a May 20 town hall, bankruptcy and reorganization specialist Michael Goldberg told Mattson investors they should expect to receive their first “interim distribution” by late summer; he’s hoping it will be sooner.
These payments, Goldberg said, will be roughly 10% of investors’ “Tranche 1” claims — money invested in Mattson’s many real estate ventures, minus any distributions received between 2017 and 2024. More distributions should follow, though investors are projected to end up with only about 30% of what they put into the failed real estate scheme.
Goldberg has been appointed the plan recovery trustee for the consolidated bankruptcy, and is now ostensibly in charge of both LeFever Mattson and KS Mattson Partners. Kevin Katari, chair of the creditors committee, introduced him during the town hall.
“We’re pretty confident we found the best guy in the country at this,” Katari said.
Moving forward, Goldberg will oversee the liquidation of real estate and the filing of lawsuits against “those deemed responsible,” as the trustee put it.
The bankruptcy professionals have already sold all but about 40 of the 200-plus properties once owned by the two investment companies, Goldberg said.
As for litigation, the trustee is bringing in “one of California’s top trial lawyers” to evaluate fiduciary malpractice claims, he said. Goldberg didn’t name the attorney, but noted that person will be working on a contingency basis.
The creditors committee, which has been both a tool of justice and a source of comfort for LeFever Mattson investors since it was formed in October 2024, is now a thing of the past. But at least five of its members, including Katari, will remain involved in the unwinding of the once-thriving business.
They will now be members of the plan recovery oversight committee. Goldberg will need their approval to sell any asset or bring any lawsuit expected to fetch $100,000 or more.
You can reach Phil Barber at 707-521-5263 or [email protected]. On X (Twitter) @Skinny_Post.
