Su Chu Chou “Terry” Cheng, Walnut Creek, California, and Chung Li “George” Cheng, Walnut Creek, both Northern California real estate investors, have agreed to plead guilty for their role in conspiracies to rig bids and commit mail fraud at public real estate foreclosure auctions in Northern California.
Archives For November 30, 1999
A federal grand jury in San Francisco returned three multi-count indictments against eleven real estate investors for their role in bid rigging and fraud schemes at foreclosure auctions in Northern California.
Melvin Russell “Rusty” Shields, 45, Granite Falls, North Carolina, and Michael Sims, 60, Gilroy, California, the founders of the S3 Partners, were sentenced to prison for investment fraud and fraudulently obtaining millions of dollars from banks by submitting forged and fraudulent invoices and loan closing documents.
Sneha Ramesh Mohammadi, 52, Bakersfield, California, was sentenced by United States District Judge Lawrence J. O’Neill to 18 months in prison, to be followed by five years of supervised release, for her involvement in an extensive mortgage fraud scheme that ran from January 2004 to September 2007.
John Packard, 64, Long Beach, California, one of the owners of a now-defunct Southern California real estate investment firm, pleaded guilty to perpetrating a fraudulent scheme that ended with the bankruptcy of the company, in which investors and banks collectively lost more than $110 million.
Mark Feathers, 51, Los Altos, California, an investment manager, was indicted by a federal grand jury on twenty-nine counts of securities and mail fraud, relating to a multi-million dollar investment scheme. The defendant falsely represented to prospective investors that the investment funds would pay “Member Returns” of at least 7.5% from profits generated by the investment funds’ mortgage loan portfolios.
Scott Edward Cavell, 31, Sacramento, was sentenced by United States District Judge John A. Mendez to five years in prison and ordered to pay $7.4 million in restitution for committing wire fraud in connection with laundering mortgage fraud proceeds.
Vincent Singh, 45, formerly of Elk Grove, California, was sentenced by United States District Judge Morrison C. England Jr. to 15.5 years in prison for wire fraud and false statements in bankruptcy for stealing funds intended for hard money lending.
Jeremy Michael “Mike” Head, 34, Huntington Beach, California, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for a nationwide foreclosure rescue scam. The case began on February 28, 2008, when a grand jury indicted Mike Head, his brother Charles Head, and 14 other defendants with violations of mail fraud, conspiracy to commit mail fraud, and other charges. Eleven of Heads co-defendants have entered guilty pleas.
Mark Nagy Atalla, a defendant in a 2013 Federal Trade Commission action targeting deceptive mortgage and debt relief pitches, is the subject of a Southern California federal district court judgment of nearly $515,000.