Tuesday, September 16, 2008 at 03:45PM
Mortgage Fraud Guilty Plea
Robert Decker, the guy who conspired with a chiropractor in the OC to steal patients' identities and buy houses in their name, pled guilty today. Though he only pled out to three counts of grand theft, there were many more house purchases. He admitted to stealing over $1 million, and is facing six years in jail. Here is a link to Kelly's story:
Plus a video of one of the houses - the one rented by Robert Carreon that coincidentally got sent my way after it was foreclosed:
Jim the Realtor
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"...my international consultants taking care of my business"
That made me laugh, thanks Jim.
More fraud stories, this one about Beverly Hills agents (hat tip Jeff) - the jenae package, x10:
Link to LA Times article
Here's a follow-up from Forbes:
Link to Forbes article on same story
from article, referencing Lehman Brothers Bank:
According to the indictment, the pair borrowed $137 million from Lehman for 80 homes, which they purchased for $87 million. To persuade Lehman to lend the money, they recruited straw borrowers with good credit. Two appraisers allegedly inflated home values in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Abrams and Fitzgerald also paid off Richard Maize, a mortgage banker with RBC Mortgage, which made loans on behalf of Lehman, prosecutors allege. Babajian and his partner Kyle Grasso, say the feds, supplied fresh listings for the scam and controlled a title company, which allowed Fitzgerald and Abrams to supply Lehman with false documents.
To keep the bank at bay, the pair allegedly rented many of the homes, using the cash flow to make mortgage payments--or to buy new properties. In order to portray straw borrowers as reliable credit risks, says the criminal complaint, Abrams and Fitzgerald faked mortgage payments and rents, and used shell companies to funnel proceeds to various bank accounts or to pay millions of dollars in kickbacks.
I was looking at some jumbo interest rates at WellsFargo.com today to see what was happening with rates. The going rate today for a 30 year fixed jumbo loan is 8.75% with an APR of 8.924%. This seems real high so who in the world wants one of those loans in today's market.
JtR- Earl Scheib called he wants your truck for a before picture. Oh and by the way, it's First On Race Day.. not that stuff about on the road dead.
This is what they mean by the pen is mightier than the sword - just compare how easy this was to pull off compared to $137 million by armed robbery. Plus the jail time difference, and likelihood of prosecution.