John Shiells, Real Estate Investor, Danville, California, and Miguel De Sanz, Real Estate Investor, San Francisco, California each pleaded guilty to three counts of bid rigging and three counts of mail fraud in the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of California in Oakland, California. Both were charged in an indictment returned by a federal grand jury in the Northern District of California on Nov. 19, 2014 in connection with their role in bid-rigging conspiracies and mail fraud at public real estate foreclosure auctions in Northern California. Continue Reading…
Archives For Rachel Dollar
The FBI and U.S. Marshals are searching for a Honolulu woman who was indicted by a federal grand jury on criminal charges related to an alleged $3 million scheme to defraud homeowners, title companies and banks in a real estate scam.
Jennifer Ann McTigue, formerly Jennifer Lowe, has not been seen since June 30. Officials say there is no record of her leaving Oahu on a commercial flight and she is suspected of hiding in Hawaii.
A former national radio host found guilty of mortgage fraud last year left a federal courthouse Tuesday appearing grateful after being sentenced to probation instead of prison time.
Prosecutors have said Warren Ballentine, 44, formerly of Country Club Hills, acted as the real estate lawyer at closings involving more than two dozen fraudulent loans that bilked lenders out of almost $10 million. A jury in October found him guilty of six counts of mail, wire and bank fraud as well as making false statements to financial institutions.
For a mortgage fraud scheme that he said tore his family apart, a Rossford man was sentenced Tuesday to 46 months in prison.
Herman “Wayne” Bradley, 59, also was ordered by U.S. District Judge Jack Zouhary to pay a $10,000 fine and forfeit more than $2 million in cash seized in 2011 from a safe at his Glenwood Road home. The money will be used to pay more than $1 million in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service and banks that incurred losses resulting from the scheme.
Restitution checks that will collectively total $820,000 will be mailed to 121 victims, among them some from the Inland area, of a foreclosure avoidance scheme that put William Hutchings and nine others behind bars, San Diego County prosecutors say.
The case, prosecuted in 2009, had Hutchings and others convincing people who wanted to avoid foreclosure to turn over grant deeds to their homes in Riverside and San Diego counties. Most of the victims spoke little English.
Zavier Kay Hafiz, Arizona, plead guilty on May 7, 2015 to Fraudulent Schemes and Artifices and was sentenced to six years in prison, followed by another seven years of probation. In addition, he was ordered to pay $3,554,838.40 in restitution. Hafiz, who was doing business as ZK Group, was charged after an FBI-led investigation revealed his company fraudulently misled nearly forty victims to whom he sold real estate throughout Arizona. Continue Reading…
According to the Nashville Post, a Nashville company specializing in the acquisition of distressed properties is facing allegations it used forgery and fraud in a massive scheme to purchase tax-sale properties for pennies on the dollar.
A 133-page complaint filed last week in Davidson County Chancery Court details the alleged scheme perpetuated by REO Holdings LLC and its principals Charles E. Walker, Jon Paul Johnson, Julie Coone and Merdan Ibrahim.
Kelly Gearhart, 54, a former real estate developer in California’s Central Coast, who previously lived in Atascadero, California and currently resides in Wadsworth, Ohio, was sentenced to 168 months in federal prison for his conviction on fraud and money laundering charges after bilking investors who put millions of dollars into Central Coast real estate projects. Gearhart was remanded into custody at the close of the sentencing hearing.
Gearhart, who was named Atascadero’s “Citizen of the Year” in 2006, pleaded guilty last year to two counts of wire fraud and one count of money laundering. When he pleaded guilty, Gearhart admitted that he knowingly and intentionally made misrepresentations and omissions relating to his Vista Del Hombre real estate development project to induce victims to part with their money. Gearhart admitted that he sold lots that were part of the Vista Del Hombre project in Paso Robles, even though those lots were being used to secure others’ loans. Gearhart admitted that he then used those same lots to obtain bank loans. Continue Reading…
A Cherry Hill man who held himself out as a mortgage loan specialist has been charged with theft and other charges that he allegedly used $146,000 for personal expenses that had been paid to him by four Burlington County residents seeking loan assistance, authorities said on Wednesday.
Mark L. Begley, 50, was charged with second degree theft by deception, two counts of third degree theft by deception, second degree misapplication of entrusted property, two counts of third degree misapplication of entrusted property, third degree filing a fraudulent or false income tax return, two counts of third degree failure to pay/remit taxes and third degree failure to file a return.
Scammers are targeting low-income families who are seeking affordable housing.
The scammers are targeting some people who are using Section 8 housing, and they are using fake websites to do it.