Randy Poulson, 44, Woolwich Township, New Jersey admitted scamming distressed homeowners into giving him their houses and then soliciting fake real estate investments from private investors – secured by those same properties – that netted him more than $3 million in illicit profits. He pled guilty to Count One of an indictment charging him with mail fraud.
According to documents filed in the case and statements made in court: Continue Reading…
According to the Huffington Post, Chicago Cook County Judge David Atkins granted Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s request for an injunction against Mark Diamond in connection with the lawsuit she filed against him in 2009.
In the 2009 suit Diamond was accused of bilking elderly black homeowners out of more than $1.3 million through a reverse mortgage/home repair scam.
According to Madigan:
“For too many years, Mark Diamond defrauded the most vulnerable people in our society,” Madigan said in a statement. “He stole the financial security that these families struggled to build over a lifetime. It is deplorable that he got away with his scheme for so many years. The preliminary injunction provides a small victory for those who have already lost so much but will at least prevent additional people from losing their homes and savings to one of Diamond’s reverse mortgage scams.”
Richard Michael Colbert, Attorney, Florida, was indicted and charged with conspiracy to commit bank or mail fraud, loan application fraud, theft or embezzlement by a bank officer and money laundering.
The indictment alleges a short sale scheme whereby the owner of property negotiates with the original lender holding the mortgage to sell the property to a person whom the original lender believes is a bona-fide purchase but who is, in fact, a straw buyer. The straw buyer, who is typically paid for used of his personal identification information and who is assured he will have no responsibility for the property or the new mortgage, negotiates a purchase price substantially less than the amount owed the lender. On the date that the short sale closes, a second sale of the property at an inflated price occurs to a second buyer. Continue Reading…
Akbar Bhamani, 61, Carmichael, California, the head of a Sacramento, California, real estate investment firm, has been sentenced to 48 months in prison for duping investors by promising that deeds of trust would be secured on properties in which the investor would be in no worse than second or third position and that the indebtedness on the property would never exceed 70 percent of the value of the property.
David Garcia Herrera, 70, Torrance, California, a former special agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration, has been arrested on federal fraud charges for allegedly posing as an active FBI agent and helping a man who posed as a former federal prosecutor to defraud a man who enlisted their help in recovering money lost in two fraudulent investment schemes.
With interest rates at an all-time low, many homeowners may be looking to modify their existing loans. Some home equity lines of credit, having been acquired by homeowners as long as 10 years ago, are due to be adjusted to higher rates over the next three years. For many struggling homeowners, particularly those underwater, securing a loan modification may provide the relief needed to avoid going into default.
Robert Farrace, 51, Modesto, California, an attorney specializing in real estate transactions, was indicted on three counts of wire fraud in connection with a fraudulent short-sale scheme.
Anthony Salcedo, 34, Fair Oaks, California, a loan broker and real estate agent, was found guilty after a five-day trial of one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and four counts of mail fraud for his involvement in a mortgage fraud scheme.
Cary McEntee, 58, Virginia Beach, Virginia, pled guilty to a federal conspiracy charge stemming from fraudulent real estate transactions he engaged in during 2006 and 2007. The criminal conduct occurred in Lansing, Michigan and was related to real estate transactions in Newport News, Virginia.
Charlie Rickie Jackson III, 43, Corona, California, and Bridgette Lenet Jackson, 45, Riverside, California, have pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiring to steal identities of hundreds of would-be homeowners from North American Title Company and using those stolen identities to obtain credit.
