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.
Archives For November 30, 1999
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.
Dinesh Valjeebhai Shah, 65, was sentenced to seven years in state prison for conspiring with three other family members to commit over $16 million in real estate fraud by forging documents and purchasing homes using straw buyers.
Israel Hechter, 47, San Diego, California, the owner of San Diego-based mortgage investment firms Ocean 18, LLC, and Note Tracker Corporation, admitted in federal court that he paid $1 million in bribes to bank insiders at J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, GMAC Mortgage, LLC, and National City Bank. Three other defendants also pleaded guilty to participating in the conspiracy.
Grant McCollough, 38, Kearney, Nebraska, a real estate investor and owner of Tycoon Investments, and his wife, Marisa McCollough, 36, pleaded guilty to participating in a conspiracy to defraud mortgage lenders and impede the Internal Revenue Service.
Thomas Yu, 51, San Ramon, California, was convicted of Conspiracy to Commit False Bank Entries, Reports, and Transactions by pleading guilty to Count Six of the pending Superseding Indictment in this case. By failing to properly report poor performing loans, Yu admitted that he helped the bank avoid required loan loss reserves that enabled the bank to artificially inflate its reported earnings to the public.