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Petitioner met Paul Trimboli at some time prior to 1983,
when Mr. Trimboli began assisting petitioners with their taxes.
Mr. Trimboli had been working at the public accounting firm
Bugni, LaBanca & Paduano, doing primarily tax work and some
auditing work. In 1983, he started a business with a partner as
a certified public accountant and financial planner. By the end
of 1983, in addition to a bachelor’s degree in accounting, Mr.
Trimboli had completed four of the five courses required to
become a certified financial planner through the College of
Financial Planning.
Mr. Trimboli learned of jojoba investments in early 1983,
and he became especially interested in an investment known as
Arid Land Research Partners (“Arid Land” or “the partnership”).
In June 1983 and again in September 1983, Mr. Trimboli traveled
to California to investigate the partnership as a potential
investment opportunity. He traveled to Blythe, California, and
to Bakersfield, California, where there were plantations on which
jojoba was already being grown. He also visited a research
facility located at the University of California at Riverside
which was involved in the growing of jojoba. On these trips, Mr.
Trimboli met with Robert Cole, who would become the general
partner of the partnership, and Eugene Pace, who was the
president of what was to become the purported research and
development contractor to the partnership, U.S. Agri Research &
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