California Real Estate Fraud Report

Jon James pleaded guilty to federal wire fraud in a Ponzi scheme that prosecutors say defrauded over 50 people to the tune of $11 million.

James’ El Segundo business ran from 2003 to 2006 and consisted of James making presentations at local restaurants, where he lobbied his victims to invest their life savings and retirement funds in real estate transactions that mostly did not exist. Instead, James used the funds from the latest group of investors to pay back earlier ones, a classic Ponzi scheme, as well as helping himself to the money to pay for his wedding and buy a recording studio.

When he is sentenced, Jon James could face more than 20 years in federal prison. But given that the same U.S. Attorney’s Office is requesting only three 3 years for Kyle Grasso (see previous article on the Beverly Hills mortgage fraud gang), James is likely to spend very little time behind bars.

The original article appeared in the Silcon Valley Mercury News.

In a story reported last year in the California Real Estate Fraud Report, Milton Retana, a citizen of Salvador, was convicted in federal court on six counts of mail fraud one one additional count of making false statements to investigators. His attorney William S. Harris says he will appeal the verdict, which, if upheld, could send Mr. Retana to prison for a couple of lifetimes: 125 years.

Los Angeles U.S. Attorney spokesman Jim Bowman said that Retana operated a Ponzi scheme that targeted Spanish-speaking individuals. In Retana’s case, he was found guilty of fleecing his investor-victims out of more than $62 million. He was charged after U.S. postal inspectors found $3 million in cash while raiding the Libreria del Exito Mundo Spanish-language bookstore owned by Mrs. Retana, Lydia Campos. The bookstore is located next to Milton Retana’s real estate brokerage and mortgage firm, called Best Diamond Funding Corp. Ms. Campos has not been charged with any crimes related to her husband’s case.

Read the Full Article in the Los Angeles Times.

Sonya Tucker, aka Cheri Tucker, and Terrance Tucker, aka Terry Tucker, are each going to federal prison for approximately 10 years.

The husband and wife team of mortgage brokers and real estate agents pleaded guilty to bank fraud after being prosecuted for processing fraudulent loan applications. They were originally charged with scamming real estate investors, many elderly, after promising them 12 percent rates of returns.

The Tuckers were prosecuted by Assistant U.S. District Attorney Mark Aveis, who said “There are plenty of federal prison beds for criminals like the Tuckers”.

Read the Full Article in the Thousand Oaks Acorn.

A pair of Monterey businessmen have been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud and securities fraud.

Harry Markopolos is the accountant and Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) who uncovered the largest Ponzi scheme in history, and as a result Bernie Madoff is sitting in prison for 150 years. But Markopolos, who spoke on July 14 at the 20^th annual conference of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), isn’t rubbing his hands together with glee; instead, he said the case was “gut-wrenching” and he feels “tremendous sadness for the victims”, who count charities and other non-profits, institutional investors, foreign investors and individuals in their ranks, some of whom lost most or all of their financial holdings.

Monique Bryher covered Mr. Markopolos’ speech at the ACFE’s conference in Las Vegas July 12-17.

If you want to learn who the “Devil” is, read the article by Monique Bryher on Examiner.com

Photo: Assn. of Certified Fraud Examiners