April 26th, 2011 at 6:48pm
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.
February 21st, 2011 at 5:43pm
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.
October 7th, 2010 at 6:23pm
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.
October 3rd, 2010 at 6:32pm
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.
September 30th, 2010 at 10:02pm
The mother-daughter team of Alice Kantin (aka Alice Meyer), 69, and Dawn Kantin, 38, is headed off to prison for two and five years respectively for their parts in a real estate fraud case, according to Kern County District Attorney Gorden Isen, who said the pair plead out. The two pleaded no contest to one count of conspiracy to defraud their clients and Dawn Kantin pleaded no contest to falsely acting as a notary. They have also been ordered to pay restitution to their victims.
The daughter’s application to become a notary was denied by the Secretary of State’s office due to a “substantial and material misstatement or omission in the application,” according to a prosecution declaration in the case.
Originally, Alice Kantin and Dawn Kantin were each charged with 44 felonies of conspiracy, embezzlement, theft, notary fraud and forgery in connection with real estate transactions that occurred between 2007 and 2009. Their scheme involved pairing distressed homeowners with renters who were given an option to buy the homes. The homeowners and renters lost everything, while Alice Kantin lined her bank account with $290,000.
Read the full article in the Bakersfield Californian.
August 13th, 2010 at 9:22am
Real estate agent Robert Carrillo’s crime spree is coming to a close, as he was convicted last week of five felony counts including grand theft, forgery, and impersonation of a notary public.
According to the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office, Carrillo, 50, and his partner Cesar Emilio Luna (still at-large) operated their real estate crimes in Santa Clara, San Mateo and Alameda counties. In one of the cases, Carrillo and Luna forged the victim’s signature on a notary’s journal but used their own fingerprints.
Read the full article in KTVU.com
May 19th, 2010 at 12:35pm
A closely-watched case in Westminster in which a real estate broker was accused of stealing $17.5 million ended when Kathy Chen, 49, was convicted of multiple counts of real estate fraud. Chen was charged with using stolen identities in order to purchase properties, which she then defaulted on so that she could steal the loan money (and she thought this was go undetected?). She now awaits a July 9 sentencing by Superior Court Judge Lance Jensen and a possible 111 years in prison.
Chen was the owner of Chen Financial, KC Realty and SBC Financial. She was prosecuted by William Overtoom of the Orange County District Attorney’s Office and convicted of 136 felony counts for obtaining 47 fraudulent loans totaling more than $17.5 million.
Among Kathy Chen’s victims was a 92-year-old woman, whose identity was stolen. Chen and her co-defendants (all fugitives, including her boyfriend) were accused of falsifying loan applications by inflating the incomes of the purported buyers, forging names and signatures on deeds and loan documents and forging the seal and notary stamp on a variety of notarized documents and deeds.
Read the full article in the Orange County Register, aka OC Register.
May 19th, 2010 at 12:02pm
A mother-daughter team is sitting in Kern County jail after being unable to post bail of $1 million each.
Dawn Marie Kantin, 37, and her 69 year-old mother Alice Kantin, have been charged with dozens of counts of conspiracy, embezzlement, theft, notary fraud and forgery. The charges arise from a real estate fraud scheme in which at least 32 people were cheated out of $2.3 million from 18 homes that went into foreclosure.
Alice Kantin is the owner of Desert Air Real Estate Investments, Inc. in Bakersfield, a company that is not registered with the California Secretary of State.
The Kantins purportedly contracted with homeowners in default to take over their mortgage payments; instead all the homes were lost to foreclosure. In addition, 14 tenants with options to purchase the homes also lost their investments due to the foreclosures.
While mother Alice allegedly put the deeds of the distressed homeowners in her name or that of Desert Air Real Estate Investments while she searched for a renter to purchase the home, daughter Dawn Kantin allegedly busied herself with committing notary fraud. Dawn Kantin is not only not a licensed notary public in California; her application to become one was denied the California Secretary of State’s office because of “substantial and material misstatement or omission in the application” according to by Gordon Isen, Deputy District Attorney of the Kern County District Attorney’s Real Estate Fraud Unit.
Read the full article in the Bakersfield Californian.
March 26th, 2010 at 8:35am
Two San Diego men have been indicted by federal prosecutors have indicted for loan modification fraud.
Glenn Rosofsky and Michael Trap not only set up their business, Nations Housing Modification Center, to deceive distressed homeowners into thinking they were located near the White House, but they brazenly sent out their solicitation letters using the seal of the U.S. Congress. Trap has already pleaded guilty to conspiracy and money laundering.
Read the full article on ABC News.
March 11th, 2010 at 11:09pm
In a plot that has been repeated many times in the California Real Estate Fraud Report, a gang member pled guilty in federal court to operating a mortgage fraud ring that included at least 24 people. It entailed straw buyers, phony appraisals, fraudulent applications for mortgages and falsified escrow documents as well as the services of a real estate broker, Stanley Gentry, who allegedly sold access to the MLS for $10,000 / month. Estimates of the losses for the over 100 properties in San Diego County range between $20 million and $50 million.
Darnell Bell pled guilty to participating in a racketeering conspiracy involving bank fraud, money laundering and other crimes, for which he faces up to 20 years in prison. His co-conspirator, Michael Ivy, owned the Real Estate Center in La Mesa. Ivy pled guilty earlier to conspiracy and is awaiting his sentence.
Read the full story in the San Diego Union Tribune.
