February 2nd, 2012 at 10:21am
Robinson Dinh Nguyen, formerly a real estate agent with the defunct and disgraced Crisp & Cole Associates, has been sentenced to prison for 21 months and ordered to pay $433,000 in restitution. The California Department of Real Estate (DRE) revoked his license in 2008.
In his guilty plea, Nguyen, 31, admitted that he had conspired with others to submit fraudulent loan documentation and used straw buyers in order to obtain mortgage loans from financial institutions (mortgage fraud, loan fraud). Many were 100% loans and others were refis, the purpose of which was to skim equity and then let the homes fall into foreclosure. The lenders, of course, lost millions.
The defendants who have already pleaded guilty are Kevin Sluga, Crisp & Cole’s CPA; Jerald Teixeira and Christopher Stovall, former loan officers for Tower Lending; Megan Balod; and Leslie Sluga. Those defendants still awaiting trial are David Marshall Crisp, Carlyle Lee Cole, Julie Dianne Farmer, Sneha Ramesh Mohammadi, Jayson Peter Costa, Jeriel Salinas, Michael Angelo Munoz, Jennifer Anne Crisp, and Caleb Lee Cole.
Read the original article in the Central Valley Business Times.
January 20th, 2012 at 8:31am
Raymond Foakes, 48, once president of the Sonoma Hells Angels, is going to spend up to five years and 10 months in prison for his participation in a mortgage fraud scheme.
Foakes signed his name to what he knew were fraudulent loan documents so that he could purchase a home that was used as a marijuana grow house. He was apparently one of at least eight persons recruited by loan officer Jacob Moynihan to act as straw buyers during 2006 and 2007. Moynihan and his father Gerald Moynihan are two of the other defendants.
In addition to his prison sentence, Foakes must be pay restitution and his contact with other Hells Angels members will be limited when he gets out of prison.
Read the original article in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.
January 12th, 2012 at 10:31pm
A man living with his family in what was thought to be a vacant home in Vacaville might turn out to be a victim of a real estate swindle.
Johnnie Carabajal claims he has given almost $48,000 in cash to a real estate agent named Alonzo Brown III toward the purchase of the home. Carbajal thought Brown was forwarding the payments to Wells Fargo, which was unaware Carbajal was trying to buy the property and served him with a foreclosure notice.
Brown is under indictment for mortgage fraud for allegedly taking out loans in the names of his friends, without their knowledge or consent, in order to purchase houses.
Read the original article in FoxNews.com
January 12th, 2012 at 10:33am
Realtors® in the community of Chula Vista are speaking up about a firm that they allege is illegally renting out listed homes and making a lot of money doing so.
The firm, called “Prudent Constituents Association,” is allegedly filing fradulent quitclaims in San Diego County, then taking possession of homes that legitimately belong to others. Realtor® Steve Lemack says “They’ll take off the lockboxes that are on [the homes], take all the signs down, they change the locks and they put up their own signs.” He says further that PCA is charging renters $2,000 per month and that they control 30 properties or more.
The Prudent Constituents Association is purportedly a non-profit formed by Derrick and Diane Brown after their own home was foreclosed. Diane Brown, who also goes by the name Harmony stated “All these homes where people are being evicted by the lenders are wrongful evictions.”
Neither the Chula Vista Police Department nor the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office, both of which were contacted by real estate agents, would acknowledge they are investigating PCA.
A note to prospective renters: I could not find any registration of the PCA as a non-profit, nor do they have a prominent (if any) website. This should be a hint that you might be dealing with an organization that is not legitimate and that you should investigate them further.
Read the original article in San Diego’s 10News.
December 23rd, 2011 at 10:04am
A Southern California man who prosecutors say fleeced investors out of $228 million in a real estate investment fraud, including many in Los Angeles, is fighting extradition from France, where he fled after his scheme unraveled.
Bruce Fred Friedman, 61, operated Diversified Lending Group out of swanky offices in Sherman Oaks until the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) shut his business down through a court order. Friedman then fled to Cannes, France.
A federal grand jury indicted Friedman on 23 charges related to what prosecutors for the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles called a Ponzi scheme arising out of real estate loans (real estate fraud, real estate investment fraud). Prosecutors say that Friedman’s scheme worked because it was believable – he offered reasonable returns to his investors, many of whom moved their retirement funds into his fund.
Although the French courts have authorized his extradition, the final decision to do so is in the hands of the French government.
Read the original article in the Los Angeles Times.
December 18th, 2011 at 11:59am
Mark Alan Helsing, an Orange County-based hard money lender, has been sentenced to 15 years in state prison and three years of probation. Helsing, 53, confessed earlier to ripping of $6.9 million from investors by operating a combined Ponzi scheme and real estate fraud scheme.
Helsing operated multiple companies: Sea View Investments, HLHS Financial Services, Inc., Foothill Realty, and Sea View Mortgage. He took investor money intended for use as hard money loans and embezzled most of the funds, using just enough to make interest payment to the investors, some of whom were his friends.
According to the OC Weekly, Helsing pleaded guilty to “55 felony counts of grand theft, seven felony counts of filing false recorded documents, six felony counts of elder financial exploitation, and sentencing enhancements for white collar crime over $500,000 and excessive taking over $1 million and $1.3 million.” He will also have to pay restitution to his victims.
December 18th, 2011 at 10:55am
An indictment handed down by a federal grand jury in Sacramento charges four individuals, including an auctioneer, with conspiring to rig bids a real estate foreclosure auctions held in San Joaquin County.
The auctioneer, or crier, is Theodore Longley of Roseville. Four real estate investors have been charged with conspiring with Longley. They are Wiley Chandler of Lodi; Andrew Katakis of Danville; Donald Parker of Valley Springs and Anthony Joachim of Stockton.
Sharis Pozen, the acting Assistant Attorney General of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, commented that the indictments reflect the determination of her division to stop criminal activity that stifles competition at real estate auctions. U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner noted that real estate fraud arising from auction conspiracies have the effect of driving down home prices in neighborhoods in which the auctioned properties are located.
Read the original articles in the Central Valley Business Times and the Sacramento Bee.
December 13th, 2011 at 7:36am
Three men have pleaded guilty in San Francisco federal court to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud in a real estate investment fraud scheme.
According to United States Attorney Melinda Haag, Stanley Ward, Edward George Locker, and Richard Ferguson Tipton, confessing that they deceived private money lender Jim Ward & Associates, Inc. and its successor, JSW Financial, Inc. They had promised the investors that they would service loans made to borrowers building single family homes. In addition, the investors were provided documentation that showed that the loans were secured by real estate deeds of trust in the Blue Chip Realty Fund, LLC and Shoreline Investment Fund, LLC, which was not true.
Read the original article in Real Estate Rama.
November 28th, 2011 at 5:18pm
Here’s a new business model for the criminally industrious:
Brothers Julio and Juan Villaneuva, 37-year old twins, were arrested by the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department and charged with theft and conspiracy. Undercover investigators arrested the pair after answering an ad on Craigslist for large kitchen appliances. The detectives went to a Moreno Valley home where they discovered expensive Viking and Thermador ovens, microwave ovens, dishwashers and even trash compactors. Just as important, a computer print-out of homes for sale in Riverside County was found. Total value of the brothers’ inventory was estimated at $100,000.
The Villaneuvas are currently spending their time in the Vista jail; Julio Villaneuva has also been charged with methamphetamine possession.
Read the original article in the Los Angeles Times.
November 3rd, 2011 at 8:58pm
Six people have been indicted by a federal grand jury for mail fraud in relation to a mortgage fraud scam.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Temika Reed, 31, a straw buyer, bought seven houses in Solano County between October 2006 and January 2007, telling the lenders in each case that the loan was to purchase a home that would serve as her primary residence. Her co-defendants are also charged with mail fraud; their role was to falsify Reed’s income and employment history. They are Buena Marshall, 65, and Jake Weathers, 35, of Sacramento; Deborah Loudermilk, 53, and Kadest Harris, 57, of Suisun City; and Reginald Dodson Sr., 40, of Tracy.
Reed’s pay for acting as a straw buyer was the proceeds from getting inflated appraisals for the homes as well as falsifying repair issues.
Read the original article in the Silicon Valley Mercury News.
