Archives For Mortgage Fraud
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…
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.
Vince Manglardi, 59, real estate developer, Long Grove, Illinois; Theodore “TJ” Wojtas, Jr., 43, real estate developer, Glenview, Illinois; David W. Belconis, 56, attorney who owned and operated Classic Title, Inc., Long Grove, Illinois; Nunzio L. Greico, 63, Palatine, Illinois, who was formerly an employee of the developers; Walter Vali, also known as “Wally Mohammad” and “Mohammad Valimohammad,” 62, former mortgage loan originator, who did business as Sunshine Funding, Inc., Mundelein, Illinois; and Karin L. Ganswer, 62, former licensed real estate salesperson, Palatine, Illinois were indicted by an federal grand jury and charged with mail and wire fraud in connection with the marketing and sale of condominiums at a 50-acre development in Palatine, Illinois known as “The Woods at Countryside.” They are alleged to have participated in a mortgage fraud scheme which caused more than $16 million in losses to banks, mortgage lenders, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac. Continue Reading…
Diana Yates, former Chief Financial Officer of the Bank of Oswego (Oregon), Sherwood, Oregon and Dan Heine, former Chief Executive Officer of the Bank of Oswego, Naples, Florida, were indicted by a grand jury and charged with one count of conspiring to defraud The Bank of Oswego and 26 counts of false entries in bank records. Both were arrested on Friday, June 26, 2015 and Yates made her appearance in Portland, Oregon before the Honorable John Acosta. Heine was arraigned in the Middle District of Florida and will make an appearance in the District of Oregon on a later date. Continue Reading…
When Alexander Solomon was assigned to prosecute Edul Ahmad, a Brooklyn real estate agent indicted in a $50 million mortgage fraud scheme in August 2011, he likely had little idea of the shockwaves that would result.
Aside from forging the credentials of would-be homebuyers, Ahmad had doled out $188,500 to State Senator John Sampson which, according to prosecutors, Sampson used to cover up years of embezzlement in exchange for granting political favors to Ahmad.