He was convicted of hijacking a home – and now the I-Team has learned the same man is being accused in another real estate scheme known as “deed shifting.”
It involves a program in which people can rent-to-own a home – a less expensive way to achieve the American Dream. But one homeowner discovered that a house he paid for was never really his.
David Brandon Ball, 35, Charleston, West Virginia, was sentenced to 37 months in federal prison for defrauding timeshare owners throughout the United States and Canada.
Ball and an associate, David Andrew Glynn, formed Mountain State Resales, LLC (MSR), a bogus company used to defraud timeshare owners of money. Ball and his associates told timeshare owners that MSR had a buyer for their timeshares and persuaded them to advance money to MSR in South Charleston to cover fees and expenses necessary for the sales. In truth, however, MSR had no buyers for the timeshares. Ball knew that the timeshare owners would not receive anything in return for money sent to MSR. Continue Reading…
A federal trial began Wednesday for a married couple accused of orchestrating a $300 million fraud involving thousands of investors who were promised big profits by purchasing dilapidated properties in the Florida Keys and elsewhere that would be transformed into luxurious resorts.
Instead, prosecutors say Fred Davis “Dave” Clark Jr., former president of now-defunct Cay Clubs Resorts and Marinas, and Cristal Clark, a top sales agent, defrauded banks and about 1,400 individual investors through a series of misleading marketing materials and false statements. The investors in some cases were promised quick returns of 15 to 20 percent, according to court documents.
Stavroula Mendez, 68, real estate developer, was sentenced to 135 months in prison; Lazaro Mendez, 42, real estate developer, was sentenced to 108 months in prison; and Marie Mendez, 49, real estate developer, was sentenced to 57 months in prison in connection with their roles in a mortgage fraud scheme that caused losses of $27.8 million. U.S. District Judge Patricia A. Seitz of the Southern District of Florida also ordered each of the defendants to forfeit $35,252,331 in fraudulent proceeds and to pay $21,240,064 in restitution. In November 2014, all three defendants were convicted of wire fraud, bank fraud and conspiracy. Eleven other co-conspirators were previously convicted of fraud in connection with the scheme. Continue Reading…
Mohamed Daoud, 50, a Norwegian businessman, has pleaded guilty to laundering the proceeds of a complex scheme to steal real property. According to his plea agreement, between July 2012 and February 2013, Daoud helped to launder some of the millions of dollars in proceeds generated by a group of confederates who posed as the real owners of Southern California homes in order to “sell” the properties to unsuspecting buyers—who later learned that they had actually purchased nothing. Immediately after each sale, Daoud admitted, the confederates would disburse the money, ensuring that the funds vanished and the buyers could not recover their stolen money. Continue Reading…
Orlando Vera, 55, Whittier, California, pleaded guilty to one felony charge of mortgage lending fraud in Nevada, a category “B” felony. His plea was a result of his role in a scheme to cheat several hopeful homebuyers out of $904,861. A month earlier, Vera’s co-defendant, Juan Robles, 35, Las Vegas, Nevada pleaded guilty to a gross misdemeanor for the same scam. Their crimes were committed between November 2012 and January 2014.
Vera schemed to defraud potential Nevada homebuyers by promising to purchase houses using their substantial savings as down payments, but ultimately failed to buy the houses. Fourth Judicial District Court Judge Kerry Earley will sentence Vera and Robles at a date to be determined. A third co-defendant, Christian Delgado, 39, Las Vegas, Nevada, will stand trial on April 4, 2016 for his role in the scheme. Continue Reading…
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…
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.