Rachel Dollar is an attorney and Certified Mortgage Banker who handles fraud recovery litigation for lenders and secondary market investors nationwide. She is a nationally recognized speaker on the topic of mortgage fraud. Ms. Dollar is licensed to practice law in California and maintains offices in Santa Rosa, California. Email Ms. Dollar

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Recent Posts

- 16 Indicted In New York Mortgage Fraud Scheme
- Mortgage Fraud Scheme Leads to Prison Term for Houston Man
- Loan Officer Sentenced to 41 Months in Prison for Mortgage Fraud
- Phoenix Mortgage Broker Who Defrauded Seniors Gets Prison Term
- Jeffrey Miller Trial Begins in Topeka, Kansas
- Man Sentenced To 22 Years For Defrauding Church, Among Others
- 2 Indicted In Major Mortgage Fraud Scheme
- Mortgage Broker Sentenced to 12 Months Home Confinement
- 2 Guilty Convictions In NY Foreclosure Rescue Scam
- Guilty Plea In Multi-Million Dollar Mortgage Fraud And Telemarketing Schemes

Monday, August 06, 2007

4 Indicted in Los Angeles Property-Flipping Scheme

Joseph Babajian, 54, West Los Angeles, Kyle Grasso, 36, Santa Monica, Lila Rizk, 40, Trabuco Canyon, and Scott Robinson, 44, Dana Point, all of California, were charged in an 85-page indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles, California . According to the indictment, the two real estate agents and two state-licensed real estate appraisers were indicted for allegedly participating in a massive mortgage fraud scam that caused more than $40 million in losses to federally insured banks.

During the alleged scheme, Babajian and Grasso worked at, and were part owners of, Prudential California Realty. Rizk and Robinson were appraisers licensed by the State of California. All four defendants were charged with conspiracy, bank fraud, and loan fraud. Additionally, Babajian and Grasso were charged with money laundering.

According to the 35-count indictment, the defendants and others previously charged in the case were involved in a wide-ranging and sophisticated conspiracy to defraud mortgage lenders by obtaining inflated mortgage loans on homes in some of California’s most expensive neighborhoods, including Beverly Hills, Bel Air, Holmby Hills and Malibu.  Among those previously charged in the case are:

Charles Elliott Fitzgerald, 47, Newbury Park;
Mark Alan Abrams, 45, Los Angeles;
Nicole LaViolette, 37, Palm Springs;
Jamieson Matykowski, 33, Laguna Niguel; and
Timothy Holland, 35, Santa Ana.

Fitzgerald, who is in custody, is scheduled to go on trial on November 13 on a host of federal charges related to the alleged scheme. The other four have pleaded guilty to charges related to the scheme and are pending sentencing.

The indictment charges that the defendants and the previously-charged conspirators sent false documentation, including bogus purchase contracts and appraisals, to the victim banks to deceive them into unwittingly funding mortgage loans that were hundreds of thousands of dollars higher than the homes actually cost.

Allegedly, the scheme was executed through a series of acts:

Grasso, Fitzgerald and Abrams bought homes at their true market values, requiring the original sellers and their real estate agents to keep the true prices confidential;
Grasso, Fitzgerald, Abrams and others fabricated inflated purchase contracts to make it look like they were buying the homes for hundreds of thousands – or even millions – of dollars more than their true prices;
Rizk and Robinson inflated appraisals of the homes to justify the inflated prices;
Schemers sent false loan application packages – many in the names of “straw borrowers” – to victim banks at the inflated prices; and
In-house escrow companies were used to conceal the true prices of the homes and distribute the excess loan proceeds received from the victim banks.

After purchasing the homes at their lower, true market values, many of the homes were “flipped” by the conspirators, meaning that after they bought homes they staged second sales at inflated prices that were reported to the victim banks to justify the inflated loans. According to the indictment, Lehman Brothers Bank alone was deceived into funding more than 80 such inflated loans from 2000 into 2003, resulting in tens of millions of dollars in losses.

The indictment details the purchase of a Beverly Hills home by Fitzgerald and Abrams in 2000 for $2 million, which they reported to a victim bank as $4.395 million after Rizk and Robinson supplied inflated appraisals.  Babajian and Grasso, who had the listing of the home, manipulated the Multiple Listing Service database to falsely report that it was listed and sold at $4.495 million. A bogus loan application package went to Lehman Brothers Bank in the name of a straw borrower, and the bank unwittingly funded a loan of more than $2.8 million on the property – more than $800,000 more than the true $2 million purchase price. The conspirators split the excess loan proceeds from the fraud, including more than $46,000 in commissions to Babajian and Grasso.

The indictment returned today alleges that Babajian and Grasso profited by collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars in commissions and concealed payments. Rizk and Robinson allegedly profited by collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars in inflated appraisal fees.

Lehman Brothers Bank sued Babajian, Grasso, Rizk, Robinson, and others in federal court in Los Angeles in 2003.  The federal court appointed David J. Pasternak as receiver to recover assets acquired with proceeds of the fraud. The receiver, as well as his attorneys and forensic accountants, have cooperated extensively with the government’s ongoing criminal investigation.

An indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.

   

Posted by Staff Reporter on 08/06/07 at 04:06 AM
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TRIAL COVERAGE

Trial coverage provided by Anne Mitchell, Crazy Fish Realty.

 

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Synopsis of Day 2, Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Seating the Jury: The jury selection process was the order of business in day 2 of the USA v. Miller, et al. Court began at 1:00 p.m. The jurors had filled out a questionaire the previous day. The 56 person pool was narrowed to 42 people whose names were called by the court clerk. Of the initial 42 potential jurors, 27 are women, 15 are men. The remaining 14 sat in the observation area with me. The side of the courtroom is divided by an aisle. The Government is to the left of the aisle, along with the jury box. The defendants are on the right side of the aisle. The choice of which side to sit on can be assumed as 'support' of one side or the other. When the jury pool returned from a break, they all filled the left side of the observation area (where I sat) and almost begrudgingly filled the right side. For the better part of the afternoon, Judge Julie Robinson questioned the jurors about whether they had served on a jury before (including any civil matters against banks. Interestingly, this was the only question in which none of the potential jurors raised their hand), their prior criminal or civil history, among other things. Many of the jurors had previous jury experience. None had been forepersons on those juries. On a few occasions, Judge Robinson excused a juror due to answers given, such as financial hardship over the course of the trial from loss of income. One juror explained that he had a close relationship with Court prosecutors due to his sitting through a murder trial of his nephew. He was unsure whether he could be impartial. When the judge would excuse a juror, the clerk would then call the next name of the 14 remaining jury pool members. The 42 were then given a sheet and asked to stand and tell the Court about their education, job, marital and family status, hobbies, favorite TV shows, military history, and what clubs they belonged to. This took the longest part of the day as some of the members spoke at length. Mr. Vanatta remains in custody. He enters and leaves the courtroom with law enforcement officers. The two officers sit 3 feet away from Vanatta during the court proceedings. Mr. Vanatta clearly struggles to keep up with reviewing jury questionaires unlike the other defendants who are free pending the outcome of this trial. Hallie Irvin sits across from Mr. Vanatta. They continue to chat and exchange notes throughout the day. Samantha Harris has no conversation with her tablemate, F. Jeffrey Miller. Harris's attorney sits between the two. I am unsure whether the jurors have yet to identify Miller. He is better dressed than his lawyers and appears to be an attorney. There is a jury consultant in the court room. Aside from myself, he was the only non-jury pool member in the observation area of the courtroom. One of Miller's attorneys', Mr. Bradshaw, appears to be bothered by my presence in the courtroom. On Monday, he approached me in the courtroom. I told him I was simply there to observe the trial. On Tuesday, at one point Mr. Bradshaw 'squared his chair' towards me. Court is not in session today, Wednesday, November 19th. On Thursday, court will reconvene at 9 am. The attorneys will be allowed to ask further questions of the 42. In case of conflict, the remaining 14 are required to return to court as well. Then, the jury members will be selected. The opening statements are much anticipated. Judge Robinson says they will begin mid-morning on Thursday. -article by field reporter, Anne Mitchell, Crazy Fish Realty

More Trial Coverage

Today's News

Some Sources require Registration.

 

Suthers Cracks Down On Mortgage Fraud
Rocky Mountain News - Denver, CO
Suther’s office also indicted 10 individuals last March in an $11 million mortgage fraud ring involving 34 local properties...Several other investigations of mortgage fraud are ongoing.

Tech Roundup: Interthinx Tackles Conflict-of-Interest Fraud
HousingWire.com
Agoura Hills, Calif.-based Interthinx, Inc., a provider of risk mitigation and regulatory compliance tools, announced last week the addition of 21 new conflict-of-interest alerts within its FraudGUARD scoring system that identify possible collusion between loan participants.

Sex, Lies, and Subprime Mortgages
BusinessWeek
The sexual favors, whistleblower intimidation, and routine fraud behind the fiasco that has triggered the global financial crisis

More Residents Worry About Mortgage Fraud
Killeen Daily Herald - Killeen, TX
Special Agent Matthew Gravelle is an experienced fraud investigator in the Austin office of the FBI's San Antonio Division. During the last five years, mortgage fraud cases have piled up because of the collapsing mortgage market.

Anti-Mortgage Fraud Law Jams Up Realtors
Bizjournals.com - Charlotte, NC
The situation mainly affects short sales, where the asking price is lower than what the homeowner owes on the mortgage. If the homeowner is 60 days delinquent on payments, the home may be considered a “distressed property” under the state Mortgage Rescue Fraud Prevention Act that took effect July 1.

Hearing Delayed for 2 Mortgage Brokers Accused of Fraud
Las Vegas Sun - Las Vegas, NV
The preliminary hearing for two Henderson residents accused of mortgage fraud has been pushed back to March because of the defense attorney's involvement in the O.J. Simpson trial in October.

Foreclosure Fallout: Avoid Mortgage Scams, Fraudulent Schemes
KOLD-TV - Tucson, AZ
Thousands of people in Pima County are facing foreclosure...The U.S. Justice Department is cracking down on mortgage scams. So far this year, more than 400 people have been charged with fraud and other mortgage related crimes.

Task Force Will Fight Mortgage Fraud
St. Louis Post-Dispatch - MO
The U.S. attorney's office in St. Louis announced Wednesday that it was forming a task force to combat mortgage fraud. The effort is intended to "cast a broader net so that we can catch more of these criminals and put them behind bars," U.S. Attorney Catherine Hanaway said in a prepared statement.

Interthinx(R) Identifies Potential Collusion in Mortgage Applications
MarketWatch - USA
Interthinx(R) announces the addition of 21 new conflict-of-interest alerts within its proven FraudGUARD(R) scoring system that identify possible collusion between loan participants. The technology advancement will help lenders identify "non-arms length" mortgage transactions -- a serious indicator of potential mortgage fraud.

Viewpoint: Foreclosure Moratoriums, and Interpreting the Truth
Housing Wire - USA
If you read the headlines, you’d think Citigroup is putting a moratorium on most foreclosures nationwide...There’s just one problem: that’s not what Citigroup really said.

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© Copyright 2004-2007 Rachel M. Dollar

Legal Disclaimer.
The information and notices contained on Mortgage Fraud Blog are intended to summarize recent developments in mortgage fraud cases and mortgage banking matters nationwide. The posts on this site are presented as general research and information and are expressly not intended, and should not be regarded, as legal advice. Much of the information on this site concerns allegations made in civil lawsuits and in criminal indictments. All persons are presumed innocent until convicted of a crime. Readers who have particular questions about mortgage banking, mortgage fraud matters or who believe they require legal counsel should seek the advice of an attorney. The creators, editors and sponsors of Mortgage Fraud Blog do not intend to create a confidential relationship or an attorney-client relationship by communication via or arising from this site.

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