Pleasanton woman recounts ordeal with businessman now accused of running ‘Ponzi scheme’

PLEASANTON — Sheryl Lawless spent months in 2023 chasing Kenneth Mattson around.

The Sonoma-based businessman, she says, owed her $25,000 for selling her father’s prized possession — a 1971 Datsun 240z — through his Pleasanton car consignment shop.

Fed up, she filed complaints against Mattson with the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office and the California Department of Motor Vehicles. Only then did she get her money, but the ordeal still gnawed at her.

When Mattson’s Specialty Sales Classics closed last year, she said she sat back and watched “the beginning of the end” for Mattson. Then, last month, the federal government swooped in and arrested and indicted Mattson on a slew of charges.

“It took a while,” the Pleasanton resident said, but she now counts herself among the numerou