January 27th, 2012 at 11:04am
An 89-year old woman who paid off her home of 40 years in the late 1990s is probably going to lose it to foreclosure (mortgage fraud, elder financial abuse), thanks to a fraud allegedly involving an ex-LAPD officer and a self-annoited Bishop.
Vistula David was conned by Leroy Dowd, 74, a so-called charismatic leader of a South Los Angeles church named the Triumph Church of God. Not only did the elderly woman give Dowd money, she unwittingly signed over the deed to her house (title fraud, real estate fraud). Keta Davis, Vistula’s daughter, says her mother did not know what she was signing.
Dowd took out three loans against the property (all of which I have independently confirmed). To their credit, Wells Fargo and Bank of America cancelled the loans they held after their investigations determined the loans were fraudulent (loan fraud, mortgage fraud). IndyMac, however, is refusing to do so and proceeding with foreclosure, saying that they are merely servicing the loan for the investor.
Claremont Detective David DeMetz, who knows Dowd from another case, calls him “a smooth con artist.” Other detectives believe Dowd was in cahoots with former LAPD officer Darcey Greenfield, who operated a real estate business and whose business Greenfield and McCall took title to Mrs. Graham’s home at one point.
Greenfield is no longer with the LAPD, surrendered her real estate license in October 2011 and has been charged with ten felony counts, all related to real estate fraud, according to San Bernardino deputy district attorney Vance Welch.
Read the original article in NBC Los Angeles.
January 27th, 2012 at 9:24am
A loan officer in Floridas has been sentenced to 70 months in prison, five years of supervised release and order to pay his victims more than $2 million in restitution after being caught stealing from elderly persons in a reverse mortgage fraud scam (elder financial fraud).
According to prosecutors, Louis Gendason, 42, was the brains behind the reverse mortgage fraud that operated nationwide and preyed on seniors who were experiencing financial problems. He created, then stole false equity (mortgage fraud, loan fraud) he created on the properties.
Gendason’s co-conspirators Kimberly Mackey, 47, and Marcos Echevarria, 29, received a 60 months and 24 months respectively for their roles.
Read the original article in the Sun Sentinel.
January 12th, 2012 at 10:17pm
Leilani Luahiwa, 52, has been charged with elder financial abuse and theft for stealing her mother’s home.
Luahiwa’s 87-year old mother thought she was signing paperwork that would make her daughter her caregiver. She only learned she no longer owned the home when another daughter discovered the property taxes had not been paid for four years.
The case was investigated by the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.
Read the original article on ABC 7.
January 12th, 2012 at 11:59am
Keith Wilson, 55, of Stockton has been arrested and charged with securities fraud, money laundering, grand theft and elder abuse.
The 22-month long investigation by police into his businesses Tribeca Properties, LLC, and Lone Cedar Corporation led authorities to believe Wilson defraud seven people in the Bay Area out of over $300,000. The real estate fraud scheme was unraveled when the purported victims found out that Wilson had not purchased the foreclosed properties he had claimed to have bought.
Read the original article in the San Francisco Appeal.
January 6th, 2012 at 8:49am
An unemployed real estate agent in Clayton has been one of the first bad guys to get caught by a new computer system in Contra Costa County designed to catch those who forge grant deeds to properties (title fraud).
Walter Roberts, 63, forged the signatures to a grant deed to his elderly parents’ home (elder financial abuse, elder financial fraud). In just two weeks, the newly-implemented computer system in Contra Costa County mailed a notification, which Roberts’ five siblings read, causing them to contact authorities. As a result, the 92- and 85-year old parents still own their property.
Ken McCormick, the deputy DA who heads the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Real Estate Fraud Unit was quoted as saying, ”Quite frankly, we would never have caught (the suspect) under the old system.”
Read the original article in the San Jose Mercury News.
December 23rd, 2011 at 9:47am
San Bernardino County prosecutors have charge Troy Preston, 41, and Mario McKinley, 31, with forgery, theft from an elder or dependent adult (elder financial fraud) as well as other crimes. They allegedly obtained title to a deceased woman’s home (title fraud) and sell it to a third party.
McKinley was a notary public; he is accused of notarizing the fraudulent documents (notary fraud).
Read the original article in SFGate.
November 24th, 2011 at 2:53pm
Francis Bagley is a 70-year-old woman who at one time had equity in two homes and a comfortable retirement account.
Now Bagley is suing her son Eddie L. Shields, charging that he failed to keep his promise to repay her if she lent him money against the properties and her retirement account. Shields is being sued in Humboldt County Court by his mother for ”financial elder abuse, breach of contract, promise without intent to perform, money lent, and intentional infliction of emotional distress,” according to a report in Courthouse News Service. His mother said he has completely defaulted and not paid her back any of the money.
November 16th, 2011 at 7:17pm
A 39-year old woman who is already working on Husband #5 has been charged felony financial elder abuse, grand theft and forgery. She is accused of defrauding her former mother-in-law, a retired physician, by telling the woman she would invest her money in what turned out to be a non-existent commercial development in Rancho Bernardo.
Tara Moore, of Point Loma, has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Prosecutors allege that Moore continued to take the elderly woman’s money for the development right up until the time she filed for bankruptcy.
San Diego Deputy District Attorney Bill Mitchell has informed the court that Moore is also being investigated by the Department of Veteran’s Affairs for continuing to take spousal support money from the federal government, even after she was married subsequently and should have informed DVA she was no longer eligible for the payments.
Read the original article in SignOn San Diego.
October 27th, 2011 at 10:01am
Two well-known Sonoma County developers have been found liable in an elder financial abuse lawsuit that involved redrawing the property lines of a married couple.
The dispute arose out of a disagreement in which the elderly couple, Joseph Bonfigli, 83, and his wife, Helen, 78, accuse Alan Strachan and Michael D. Smith, the President of Argonaut Constructors of taking a portion of their land for one of their developments almost 10 years ago.
Each defendant must pay $300,000 for financial elder abuse, with an additional award by the jury for $48,000 in punitive damages against Alan Strachan. Strachan could also be liable for another $535,000 in damages for “civil fraud by deception, false promises or misrepresentation,” but that claim is in dispute by the two parties.
Read the original article in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.
October 6th, 2011 at 9:07am
California Governor Jerry Brown has just signed several bills designed to protect senior citizens against elder financial abuse.
Due to budget cuts to the state, less staff are available to take calls of elder financial abuse. SB718 sets up a confidential Internet reporting system to replace the jobs lost.
AB1293 allows courts to seize and/or freeze the assets of a person accused of stealing more than $100,000 from a senior (elder financial fraud).
SB33 extends SB1018, which was set to expire in two years. That law requires bank and other credit-related employees to report suspicious financial activity on an elderly person’s account.
Read the original article in the Mercury News.
