A group of people from California have been convicted for conspiring to impersonate FBI agents in an attempt to get their money back from an alleged Ponzi scheme.

The Folsom Telegraph reports four people stormed into the office of alleged scam artist Anthony Vassallo sporting bullet proof vests, ear pieces, handcuffs and fake badges and IDs.

But instead of getting their money back, they got arrested.

David Sanders, 43, was the latest of the four to be sentenced to two years of probation and 180 days of home confinement.

His partners in crime, Craig Anderson, 41, of Chicago; Sean Smartt, 42, of Sacramento, were previously sentenced to the same, and Cassandra Moore, 27, got off with just the two years' probation.