SAN DIEGO -- The San Diego District Attorney indicted 18 people in connection with an alleged scam that offered to protect homes from foreclosure.

Earlier this week, a grand jury indictment was unsealed and it revealed that the district attorney expanded the investigation into the alleged land patent scam that was the creation of Larry Smith.

Prosecutors allege Smith was the leader of the group, who along with 17 others allegedly offered false hope to homeowners facing foreclosure.

"Each of the people named in the indictment have a piece to play in this endeavor, but he [Smith] is the principal architect in the land patent scam," said prosecutor Marlene Coyne.

Smith wasn't talking when the I-Team confronted him last year. His associate Margarita Gaviola denied even knowing him at the time.

But Smith and Gaviola, as well as four others -- Maria Candida Capa, Jessica Refuerzo, Julita Whittingham and Edgardo Orcino -- have pleaded not guilty in connection with the alleged scam.

Five more people were arraigned in a downtown court on charges connected to the alleged scam. They face criminal charges of conspiracy to commit grand theft, and grand theft and conspiracy to do a deceitful practice while acting as a mortgage foreclosure consultant.

The I-Team uncovered how the operation worked: Homeowners facing foreclosure paid Smith and his co-conspirators for a land patent, an offer based on 17th-century Spanish land patents. In theory, the patents created a sovereign nation for each property -- meaning banks, lenders and title holders had no claim and couldn't foreclose.

According to the indictment, more than 20 people told prosecutors they've lost thousands of dollars after they believed Smith, who they said promised that a land patent could save their properties from foreclosure.

Smith is due back in court on July 20.