Eight Defendants Charged in Mortgage Fraud Scheme in California | California RealEstateRama
According to court records, the mortgage fraud scheme involved purchasing homes at prices substantially higher than the homes were worth in order for the defendants to receive cash at the close of escrow. The indictment alleges that Shavlovsky recruited Katinsky and Kennedy to act as straw buyers and finance 100 percent of the artificially inflated purchase price of homes by submitting fraudulent loan applications to lenders, which falsely represented Katinsky’s and Kennedy’s employment, income, and intent to occupy the homes as their primary residence.
According to the indictment, Mysin, a licensed California real estate agent, prepared the phony applications and attempted to disguise his involvement with these fraudulent loans by making it appear that another loan officer in his office had handled them. Kokhanets, Boris Murzak, Zinaida Murzak, and Tuzman were homeowners who allegedly sold their properties as part of this scheme. In order to artificially inflate the sales price of their homes, Kokhanets, Tuzman, and the Murzaks are alleged to have signed fake invoices falsely claiming that repairs or improvements had been completed on their properties. After the lenders funded the fraudulent loans, the defendants diverted a portion of the proceeds from the inflated sales price directly to themselves and to businesses controlled by the defendants and others. All seven properties were foreclosed, resulting in more than $1.8 million in losses for mortgage lenders.
--------------
Isn't it amazing how many different types of real estate scams we have seen during these last 15 or 20 years? There was one set of scams when prices were on the way up, then a different set of scams while the market was crashing, and now there are foreclosure scams, and of course we have the ever-popular HOA and condo association scams.
No comments:
Post a Comment