California Real Estate Fraud Report

One of two brothers who committed $6 million worth of foreclosure fraud by stealing the identities of notaries (notary fraud) and forging scores of grant deeds (title fraud) is going to prison for 12 years.

John Zepeda, 60, pleaded guilty to rent skimming, forgery, identity theft and conspiracy to commit grand theft. Zepeda apparently did not spend all his ill-gotten gains, as he has agreed to pay restitution to his victims.

The California City Police Department operates with a small staff of 20. Yet this group of extraordinarily talented and dedicated professionals took a referral on what appeared to initially be a minor identity theft case and dug deeper until their investigation bore fruit in the form of five arrests.

Those arrested were appraiser Nathaniel Acree, 65, of Long Beach; broker Jay Langer, 51, of San Juan Capistrano; Khalid Malik Abdul Ali, 60, of California City; Angie Cachu, 44, of Orange; and notary Elizabeth Torres, 28, of Santa Ana. Their scheme was one familiar to readers of the California Real Estate Fraud Report:  purchase properties at inflated appraisal values, skim the phony equity off the top and use straw buyers to purchase the inflated-value homes.

Three reserve officers for California City performed much of the investigative work: Reserve Officer Michael Katz, Reserve Officer Chris Christopher (now deceased), and Sgt. Jeff Takeda.

The case is being prosecuted by Kern County Deputy District Attorney Gordon Isen. The case included the assistance of the investigative arm of the Orange County District Attorney’s Office and the US Postal Service.

Read the original article in the Bakersfield Californian.

A Glendale man who still holds a valid real estate license from the California Department of Real Estate (DRE) is serving a 2-year prison sentence after pleading no contest to two counts of forgery.

Gregor Tevan had helped his brother purchase several rental properties. Because of that, Tevan had all of the paperwork to the properties. When he couldn’t pay off his gambling debts, he forged several documents to show he was the owner of one of the properties (title fraud), used a notarized stamp (notary fraud) and sold the property to another man.

Tevan’s brother was able to regain possession of his property but the title company lost money on the deal.

Brothers Henrik Sardariani, 43, and Hamlet Sardariani, 41,  and Wanda Kenney, 65, also known as Lavana Hamer, have pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of wire fraud, identity theft, conspiracy and unlawful monetary transactions in connection with an alleged $6 million loan fraud.

The Sardarianis are accused of creating fraudulent deeds of trusts to properties they did not own, along with forged corporate and financial documents, according to the federal indictment. They did this in order to show equity in the properties so that they could obtain large loans from the lenders. Wanda Kenney and Axcess Escrow are accused of processing the paperwork (escrow fraud). The stamps of the notaries public were phony (notary fraud).

Once the monies were received from the banks, at least several million was allegedly transferred to an account in Hong Kong by Henrik Sardariani.

U.S. District Judge Jacqueline H. Nguyen will hear the case on September 20.

Read the original article in the Los Angeles Daily News and the Beverly Hills Courier.

A Whittier woman who helped a woman refinance her home in 2009 has been charged with forging loan documents (loan fraud) by taking a second loan out against the victim’s house and gambling with the money.

Sheriff’s Detective Christopher Derry said Helen Hinojos, 45, took the second loan out against an 85 year old woman who is her relative by marriage. Ruth Farias, 69, whose real estate broker’s license was revoked in 2009 and who had prior disciplinary issues with the California Department of Real Estate (DRE), was charged with identity theft. Esmeralda Garcia, 29, was charged with notarizing the forged signature  of the victim on the deed of trust (notary fraud and title fraud) All three women were charged with one court of theft from an elder or dependent adult (elder financial fraud).

This is not the first time Helen Hinojos has been charged with stealing from an elderly person. Earlier this year she was also charged with fraud for taking funds from escrow from an elderly couple, including a second. The couple lost their home as a result.

Read the original article in the Whittier Daily News.

Five men at a mortgage brokerage have been charged in connection with falsifying or forging loan documents and identity theft in a mortgage fraud scheme that involved friends and family.

Jose Elias Ochoa Jr., 54, was a licensed real estate salesperson (his was license revoked in 2010) employed as a manager at Solco Financial Services in Corona. He, Erasmo Ochoa, 58, Rey Ochoa Jr., Joe Montoya  and Julio Zamarripawere face multiple charges for a mortgage fraud scheme that operated in 2006 and 2007.

The five are believed to have recruited straw buyers who were friends, relatives and other associates and then used their good credit to buy multiple houses within a short period.  According to the Riverside County District Attorney’s Offfice, the identities of 12 people were used to set up documentation to purchase 39 properties for at least $5.4 million.

The notary employed by Solco Financial Services stated that Jose Ochoa would sign documents in other people’s names (forgery) and that she then notarized them without meeting the parties to the transactions (notary fraud).

Read the original article in the North County Times.

Two women in the Tulare area received what I think were light sentences for conspiring with straw buyers to submit fraudulent loan applications to purchase homes.

Alma Reyes, 41, of Porterville was the purported ringleader, recruiting other crooked real estate agents. She received a two-year sentence after being convicted of 14 felony counts of conspiracy, grand theft, forgery and falsifying loan documents.

Reyes’ partner in crime, Nelda Garcia, 48, served 210 days in County mail, was put on probation for 11 years and is banned from working in the real estate industry. She was convicted of the same charges and also notary fraud.

One couple who acted as straw buyers was able to purchase two homes within five years worth $1.1 million, even though their monthly income was only $3,000.

When are authorities going to get serious and start prosecuting straw buyers? They are no less culpable and there is no deterrent to others considering acting as straw buyers as long as there is no punishment.

Read the original article in the Visalia Times.

Amidst new revelations that many of the nation’s major banks may have improperly processed the foreclosure documents of tens of thousands of homes and / or violated the foreclosure laws of many states, a bill that would have legitimized electronic signatures across state lines failed when President Obama rejected it by a pocket veto.

The bill, which has been through Congress several times in the past five years, was put to rest “out of an abundance of caution, and to ensure that those unintended consequences don’t harm consumers”, according to White House press secretary Robert Gibbs.

Both sides of Congress had supported the bill. But Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt) noted after the President’s rejection that the recent revelations about the validity of signatures of bank officials on foreclosure documents that “Now that concerns have been raised, Congress should re- examine whether this bill might have had an unintended impact on foreclosures.”

Read the full article in BusinessWeek.

A Temecula area high school teacher and his wife who co-owned a Fresno-based mortgage company were arrested October 1 and charged with 133 counts of real estate fraud. The $9 million real estate fraud is alleged to have occurred in Fresno, Madera and Riverside counties and perpetrated by Justin Dee Linder, 36, and his wife, Kelly Jo Linder, 31, under their company Summit Mortgage Services.

The Linders have been charged with embezzlement, grand theft, identity theft and illegally obtaining funds from a mortgage. Neither was a licensed broker, choosing instead to work under the license of a real broker.

Among his crimes, Justin Linder is accused of trying to get distressed homeowners to sign their properties over to him and borrow the good credit of at least one customer for Linder’s own use.

The Linders’ real estate agent Gregg Borchardt, 36, and their notary public Hector Secco, 67, have also been charged in connection with the case.

Read the full article in the Press Enterprise.