November 16th, 2011 at 6:51pm
Two parents and their daughter who conspired to defraud banks have been sentenced to prison for their crimes.
Augustine Ramirez, who pleaded no contest to conspiracy andgrand theft, received a four-year sentence. His crimes was submitting loan applications, for five properties, in each case telling the lender his intent was tolive on the properties (mortgage fraud, loan fraud). Maria Ramirez, his wife, and Guadalupe Ramirez, his daughter, each received six-year sentences for conspiring to obtain inflated appraisals and lying to the sellers of the properties. Several appraisers, all unnamed, have been sanctioned by the state Office of Real Estate Appraisers for “errors and omissions” in their appraisal work (appraisal fraud).
Read the original article in the Bakersfield Californian.
November 10th, 2011 at 12:39pm
A joint investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the Internal Revenue Service and the FBI into a large fraud in the Sacramento area has resulted in 25 indictments over the past six months, mostly of persons of Russian background.
U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner stated that First Franklin, a now-defunct subprime lender that was purchased by Bank of America, was the target of $16 million in fraudulent loans used by the group to buy several dozen homes.
Some of the defendants, all of whom have pleaded not guilty, are relatives or friends of members of Bethany Slavic Missionary Church, located on Jackson Road. They are accused of recruiting straw buyers, helping falsify the straw buyers’ income in order to qualify for loans (loan fraud, mortgage fraud). Prosecutors charge that the defendants additionally inflated the value of the homes by submitting phony construction invoices for repairs and improvements.
Facing charges are Vera Zhiry, Vera Kuzmenko, Pyotr Bondaruk, the son of Bethany’s co-founder and head pastor, Adam Bondaruk, Peter Kuzmenko, Nadia Kuzmenko, real estate broker Aaron New, Sergey Blizenko, Veniamin Markevich and Edward Shevtsov. The prosecutor is Assistant U.S. Attorney R. Steven Lapham.
Read the original article in the Sacramento Bee. Additional information can be found on the federal Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, StopFraud.gov.
October 27th, 2011 at 9:24am
Despite efforts by the California Department of Real Estate (DRE) to stop loan modification fraud – and even prosecutions by the California Office of the Attorney General to do the same – such activity is still occurring, especially in certain communities.
A recent article in California Watch highlights two such cases.
In the first, George Bolanos, who allegedly operates under multiple names and is unlicensed in real estate, was issued a cease-and-refrain letter by the DRE. Bolanos was advertising loan modification services to Spanish language media and requiring upfront fees, which are illegal in California.
Another recipient of a DRE cease-and-refrain letter is the firm JC Ruiz Capital Group, which also goes by the name Maxima Home Loans. The letter dates to 2009 but the owner is still operating his loan business. JC Ruiz drew the DRE’s attention also for charging upfront fees for loan modifications, which he runs through his other business, called First America Financial Consulting. The Better Business Bureau gives JC Ruiz Capital an “F” rating on its website due to the following reasons, which I copied from their information:
∙ BBB concerns with the industry in which this business operates
∙ Length of time business has been operating25 complaint(s) filed
against business
∙ Failure to respond to 13 complaint(s) filed against business
∙ 2 complaint(s) filed against business that were not resolved
∙ 14 serious complaint(s) filed against businessOverall complaint
history with BBB
∙ Government action(s) against business
September 9th, 2011 at 8:58am
Ju Young Chung, 36, was arrested for allegedly running a real estate fraud ring in which homes which had been paid off had the equity skimmed.
Chung and the other six suspects who were arrested are being accused of renting out the homes and applying for loans using the stolen identities of the true owners (loan fraud, mortgage fraud). The earliest cases date back to 2009 and the total amount of the fraud is estimated at $5.9 million.
Except for the home in Calabasas, the remaining properties were located in the San Gabriel Valley, including Arcadia, Diamond Bar, Hacienda Heights, Monterey Park, San Gabriel, Temple City, Walnut and West Covina. Most of the victims were of Chinese descent and several of the accused are either Chinese or Korean nationals.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the FBI investigated the case. If you are a victim or know of other potential victims, please contact the L.A. Sheriff’s Real Estate Fraud team at 562-946-7217.
Read the original article in the Los Angeles Daily News.
August 26th, 2011 at 9:01am
A business in the Stockton area run by a woman who lost her real estate license, yet continued to act as a licensed agent, is now the focus of an investigation by the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office.
The California Department of Real Estate (DRE) revoked the license of Magdalena Salas, aka Maggie Salas, in 2004. In 2010, the DRE ordered her to “desist and refrain. By then Salas was running several businesses, including Legacy Home Loans & Real Estate, Peace and Freedom Legal Services and Divinity Real Estate. District Attorney investigators say that Salas advertised free loan modification services on Spanish-language television, radio and billboards (affinity fraud, ethnic fraud). But when clients came in, she allegedly extracted large sums of advance fees to stop their foreclosures and help them obtain loan modifications (loan modification fraud, loan modification scams).
It has been illegal since 2009 in California to charge advance fees to perform loan modification services.
Read the original article in the Stockton Record.
May 13th, 2011 at 9:43am
Here’s a case where routine screening by a law enforcement agency failed to catch a bad apple.
Darcey Greenfield, 39, joined the LAPD since 1994. Along with working her way into becoming a detective, Greenfield started a sideline with real estate investments that crossed over into real estate fraud, according to investigators with the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s real estate fraud unit.
The DA’s office has charged her with 10 felonies, which include the serious charges of sale of false investment securities, the sale of securities without a license and grand theft. According to the prosecutor, the charges have to do with three individuals living in San Bernardo who invested with Darcey Greenfield. But, said to say, 13 LAPD personnel also invested with her and several have had to file bankruptcy as a result of the alleged real estate investment scam.
When members of a group are taken in by a scam, whether they are of the same ethnicity, attend the same church or, in this case, belong to a trusted group such as the LAPD, that is called affinity fraud.
Darcey Greenfield is in custody at the Rancho Cucamonga detention center, unable so far to make her $1 million bail.
Read the original article in the Los Angeles Times.
March 18th, 2011 at 10:36am
A real estate broker who was formerly a member of the Irvine Planning Commission is being sued by a married couple, a high school friend and a father and son who say he solicited money from them for real estate investments he never made.
David R. Sparks, 50, is a long-time broker and owns Irvine-based firm Sparks Realty & Investment Inc. The couple, Marc Vaccaro and Astrid Vanzon, say Sparks flew out to Wisconsin to meet them and “talked about his religious faith, and shared values in a Christian tradition, which added to (their) belief in defendant’s trustworthiness,” according to their federal lawsuit, which accuses Sparks of forging bank and government documents and using nonexistent escrow companies to commit fraud. They are claiming $1.6 million in damages.
Robert Edwin Anslow of Santa Ana is the now-former friend who is suing David Sparks. Gary Schultz and his father Gerhard Schultz have also filed suit against Sparks. All the parties claim that Sparks solicited money from them for real estate investments that were not made (real estate investment fraud).
Here is David Spark’s website for Sparks Realty & Investments, Inc.
Note: the California Department of Real Estate (DRE) does not show any actions taken against David Spark’s real estate license.
Read the original article in the OCRegister / Orange County Register.
March 9th, 2011 at 8:24pm
Ventura County Superior Court Judge Patricia Murphy sentenced a Guatemalan man to 15 years in prison in a real estate fraud case in which he stole $788,000 from a man and used the money to buy a $1.8 million home in the Moorpark Country Club Estate development.
Enrique Sandoval Martinez, 46, was convicted in December 2010 of making a false statement, grand theft, money laundering, and three counts of causing a false or forged instrument to be recorded. This was an affinity fraud case, in that Martinez targeted the victim, who was also Spanish-speaking, and who attended the same church as Martinez.
The judge noted Martinez’ sophistication in setting up his victim, his fleeing to Guatemala (before stupidly returning to the United States) and his lack of remorse.
Read the original article in the Ventura County Star.
January 7th, 2011 at 9:35am
Miguel Romero was a busy man, simultaneously wearing the hats of a real estate agent, insurance dealer, income tax preparer and credit repair expert.
But many of his fellow Latino clients would say he drove them to ruin (affinity fraud) and a staggering number of his home sales have fallen into foreclosure. Of the 122 homes Miguel Romero has sold since 2004, at least 75 have fallen into foreclosure. Twenty-one of the additional 63 homes his network of real estate agents sold have also entered foreclosure status.
Other clients of Romero, who attended his weekly seminars on how to grow wealth by using the equity in their homes to invest in other properties, have lost not only those properties but their principle residences, which had equity and which they were able to afford before they met Romero.
Now the long arm of the law has finally caught up with Miguel Romero: he is being sentenced today to four years in prison for fraud, theft and conspiracy to commit a crime. With his unique business plan that consisted of overstating income on mortgage loan applications (mortgage fraud, loan fraud, real estate fraud) to buy homes they could truly not afford, there was no way his clients would not be victimized.
Read the full article in the North County Times.
January 4th, 2011 at 11:30pm
San Francisco attorney David Replogle has been convicted of first-degree murder, conspiracy, grand theft, burglary and identity theft in a sordid plot to kill an elderly gay man whose body has never been found.
Replogle, 61, and his accomplice, former Castro Street bartender Miguel Bustamante, 28, were found guilty today by a Riverside County jury in the death of 74 year-old Clifford Lambert. Both men face life in prison when they are sentenced on March 4.
Clifford Lambert was targeted because he was an older gay man living alone with assets that the conspirators wanted for themselves. Not only was his art work stolen, but after Lambert was murdered, Replogle posed as him in order to have title of the home transferred to him so that it could be sold quickly.
The case of David Replogle is the first real estate fraud of which I am aware for which a gay person was targeted by another in an affinity fraud.
Read articles in SF Gate (San Francisco Chronicle) and the Palm Springs Desert Sun.
Read three earlier postings in the California Real Estate Fraud Report about David Replogle, the first, just below this post, and the earlier postings here and here.
