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Fraud
Stories
From
Patrick
Crowley
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Fraud
News Wire
| Last Updated |
Friday,
February 9, 2007, |
04:49
PM |
Texas
Time |
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Crooked Lawyers
A former Kansas elected official who is in trouble along with her attorney husband for alleged mortgage fraud highlights the latest edition of Lawyers Gone Wild.
Katheryn Shields, 60, the former Jackson County executive and her husband, attorney Philip Cardarella, 59, have been indicted along with nine other people on federal charges of "conspiracy and wire fraud for their role in a scheme to engage in mortgage fraud," according to a statement from U.S. Attorney Bradley Schlozman.
"This case represents another tragic example of intelligent individuals -- including lawyers and prominent elected officials -- thumbing their noses at the law in the pursuit of quick and easy cash," said Schlozman, the U.S. Attorney for the Western District if Missouri in Kansas City.
The couple could not be reached to comment, but they have maintained their innocence in published reports.
MortgageDaily.com
subscribers read Patrick's full story
Legislator
Accused of Foreclosure Fraud
The Maryland Attorney General is looking into claims
that a state legislator duped a woman into selling
her home to him.
In a lawsuit filed in Anne Arundel County Circuit
Court, Teresa Milligan accuses Maryland State Delegate
William "Tony" McConkey, a Republican and a real
estate broker, of foreclosure rescue fraud.
McConkey has denied Milligan's claims that he somehow
tricked Milligan into singing over her house to
him.
Kevin Enright, a spokesman for Maryland Attorney
General J. Joseph Curran, confirmed to MortgageDaily.com
that the attorney general's office is "looking into
the matter."
MortgageDaily.com
subscribers read Patrick's full story
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February
9, 2007
Merger
Deepens Fraud Risk Management
New, combined company to deliver comprehensive
line of risk management analytics to the mortgage
industry
Flipping
Ringleader Admits Fraud
Up to 40 years in prison are a possibility for
Randall Aaron Davidson, who pleaded guilty to
charges relating to a flipping scheme he allegedly
masterminded that involved 350 fraudulent loans
worth about $22 million.
read
story from the Dayton Daily News.
Man
Faces 39 Years
Among several other charges he pleaded guilty
to, Larry D. Wills admitted that he used false
documents to obtain a loan of nearly $0.5 million
from New Century Mortgage and now faces up to
39 years in prison without parole.
read
story from the Kansas City Business Journal.
February
8, 2007
ID
Fraud Rises
More borrowers are using someone else's identity
to obtain real estate loans.
MortgageDaily.com
subscribers read full story.
Expert
Elaborates on "Liar" Loans
More borrowers are using someone else's identity
to obtain real estate loans.
Mortgages
through Forged Deeds
A prosecutor made new arrests related to a silent
scam where forged documents are recorded within
a county and are later used to fraudulently
obtain mortgage loans for the false sales transactions.
read
story from Yahoo News.
No
Trial Before Elections
A judge denied a request by Katheryn Shields,
a mayor candidate for Kansas City, Mo., to speed
up her trial on federal mortgage fraud charges
before the city’s Feb. 27 primary.
read
story from the Kansas City Star.
February
7, 2007
Borrower
Risk Assessment Tool Launched
Kroll Factual Data releases FactualID.
Scam
Used Mortgage Borrower Info
Charles Griffin and Bianca Bowl were arrested
for allegedly masterminding a scam in which
an employee of a mortgage company and another
at an escrow firm were recruited to provide
victims' personal financial information and
two others were recruited to obtain phony documents,
all to set up and charge accounts in the victims'
names.
read
story from King 5.
Co.
Loses Appeal to Arbitration Clause
Beneficial Mortgage appealed a jury verdict
that awarded a Spanish-speaking couple damages
for a refinance loan executed in a language
they couldn't read, arguing that the case should
have gone to arbitration before being decided
by a jury, but an appeals court upheld the decision
because the arbitration clause in Beneficial's
loan agreement violated Oregon law.
read
story from The Oregonian.
Broker
Charged with Mortgage Fraud
Charges of engaging in mortgage fraud, involving
the use of straw buyers and sellers and inflated
appraisals for loans, were made against Bennie
Clark, a mortgage broker and owner of World
Wide Financial LLC, his associate Michael Jackson,
his employee Donna Brown and Robert Casey, who
allegedly was a straw buyer.
read
story from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Ex-Mortgage
CEO Receives 20
The former chief of HomeGold, Ronald Sheppard,
was sentenced to 20 years in prison for his
role in multimillion-dollar securities scheme
that defrauded thousands of investors.
read
story from the Charlotte Observer.
Restaurateurs
Investigated for Mortgage Fraud
Investigators seized computers, mortgage files,
counterfeit cash, and phony immigration documents,
among other things, from a restaurant owned
by a couple they think ran a multi-million dollar
mortgage fraud scam.
read
story from the Columbus Dispatch.
4
Expected to Admit Guilt
While a mortgage fraud trial was postponed for
Randall Aaron Davidson, the alleged ringleader
of a flipping scam that involved 350 fraudulent
loans, Michael McWhirter, Mary J. Donaldson
and Jocelyn L. Hammond, each of the individuals
is expected to plead guilty to some of the related
charges.
read
story from the Dayton Daily News .
Ex-mortgage
CEO Faces 25 Years
After a three-week trial, Ronald Shepperd, the
former chief of now-defunct HomeGold, was found
guilty of defrauding 8,000 investors out of
$275 million and now faces 25 years in prison.
read
story from the Charlotte-Observer.
Mayor
Candidate Requests Speedier Trial
Katheryn Shields, accused of mortgage fraud,
has asked a judge to move the date of her trial
to before Feb. 27 from June to try and clear
her name before the primary elections for mayor
of Kansas City, Mo.
read
story from KSHB-TV .
February
6, 2007
Course
Trains on Mortgage Fraud
Fraud Awareness Training Offered.
Fraud
Emerging in Home Equity Portfolios
Web-facilitated expansion of fraud footprints
threaten ongoing portfolio performance.
Appraisers
Increasingly Pressured into Overvaluing
Study finds pressure on residential appraisers
to increase property values on the rise.
Online
Glossary Combats Mortgage Fraud
Words of the Week glossary tool at LoanPage.com
offers list of mortgage terms to help consumers
understand the loan process and avoid fraud.
Suit
Alleges Repair, Mortgage Scam
Illinois authorities have filed a lawsuit against
Candice Co., Cadillac Properties and Payment
Center, alleging that the companies made over
$10 million in illegal loans and hid their relationship
to shoddy home-repair firms.
read
story from the Chicago Tribune.
Ex-mortgage
Execs Settle Fraud Accusations
Robert Nass and Thomas Masters, the former controller
and vice president of Metropolitan Mortgage
& Securities Co., respectively, and businessman
Dan W. Sandy settled lawsuits by the Securities
and Exchange Commission alleging that the men
were involved in a series of real estate deals
that inflated the company's profitability and
hid its deteriorating financial condition.
read
story from the Spokesman Review.
Appraisers
Consistently Pressured to Inflate
A survey found that nine out of 10 appraisers
said they were pressured by real estate agents,
loan prospects and mortgage brokers and lenders
into inflating property values, compared to
nearly 6 in 10 appraisers in 2003.
read
story from Mercury News.
Avoid
Fraud Pitfalls
Using trusted friends' referrals for mortgage
professionals and researching prices of homes
sold in area of interest are some ways loan
prospects can avoid a victim of mortgage fraud,
which has become increasingly popular, despite
authorities' efforts to fight it.
read
story from Quicken Loans.
Mortgage
Broker Charged with Fraud
Michael Danish, a mortgage broker who had been
accused of duping several mostly-poor people
by pocketing money he had promised would be
used to pay off their debts and make investments,
was arrested late last week on charges of defrauding
a financial institution and fraudulent notarizing.
read
story from the St. Petersburg Times .
How
to Avoid Misleading Lenders
Because lenders are sometimes knowingly the
perpetrators of mortgage fraud, consumers should
watch for red flags such as being encouraged
to include false information on a loan application
and leaving signature lines blank.
read
story from the Meridian Star.
Scheme
Targets Distressed Homes
Randall Aaron Davidson and three accomplices
are accused of orchestrating a scheme of 350
fraudulent mortgages worth about $22 million
for run-down homes worth much less but sold
at inflated prices to borrowers who were promised
repairs that never came.
read
story from the Dayton Daily News.
Avoiding
Foreclosure "Rescue"
The Colorado attorney general's tips to avoid
falling prey to foreclosure "rescue"
scams included reviewing documents carefully
and being aware that signing any kind of deed
translates to a home sale.
read
story from the Miami Herald.
Businessman
Accused of Remodeling Scam
Over the past two years, more than 36 people
have filed complaints against Frank Edmund Donofrio,
a businessman accused of helping arranging high
interest loans for remodeling projects of which
some were never completed.
read
story from the St. Petersburg Times.
Fraud
Suspect Couple Arrested
Mark Bonds, who was due in court for allegedly
being involved in a drug ring, and his wife,
Anna Bonds were recently arrested for allegedly
falsifying documentation, including tax forms
and pay stubs, in a mortgage fraud scheme.
read
story from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Appraiser
Gets 42 Months
Edward Young received 3 years and five months
in prison for his alleged involvement as an
appraiser in a mulitmillion-dollar flipping
scheme in which properties were purchased and
resold the same day with inflated appraisals
and fraudulent documentation.
read
story from Clarion-Ledger.
Foreclosure
Rescue Scam Services
A television reporter investigated a mortgage
fraud foreclosure "rescue" program
that stole money and the home of a victim.
read
story from NBC 4.
RBC
Encourages Fraud Awareness
RBC Centura Bank will join a campaign led by
federal, state and local governments and national
consumer advocacy organizations to support the
ninth annual National Consumer Protection Week,
which encourages consumers to educate themselves
to avoid being a victim of identity theft and
fraud.
read
story from the Rocky Mountain Telegram.
February
5, 2007
Mortgage
Fraud Involves Insiders
Through the many shapes and sizes of mortgage
fraud, a lender is always a victim and one major
element is the concealment of the true property
price, but sometimes another lender and other
industry insiders, such as appraisers, are knowingly
the perpetrators.
read
story from the Seattle Times.
February
1, 2007
Flipping
Scam Lands 5 Sentences
A fraudulent flipping scheme involving distressed
property landed Kristy N. Packer, Marcy Irby
and Jafus Jones II probation terms ranging from
five to three years and restitution to Countrywide
Mortgage, and Phillip N. Weary and William Vaston
Fairley prison sentences ranging from 7 to 19
months.
read
story from the Hattiesburg American.
Lawyer
Suspended for Inflated Property
Attorney Morris I. Olmer has been suspended
from practicing law for his involvement in a
real estate transaction in which the sales price
of a property was inflated and proceeds generated
were pocketed, and may be a case of mortgage
fraud.
read
story from the Connecticut Law Tribune .
Realtor's
Fraud Conviction Appeal Unsuccessful
A federal appeals court upheld the conviction
and sentence of Sally L. Gibson, a Realtor who
led a $1.4 million mortgage fraud scam in which
borrowers were promised $100 if Century Mortgage
couldn't find and qualify them for a home purchase,
but ultimately borrowers ended up in loans for
properties with inflated values and with balloon
payments and high interest rates.
read
story from the Spokesman Review.
21
Accused of Mortgage Fraud
A grand jury charged 21 people connected to
two cases of alleged mortgage fraud that included
illegally acting as a real estate broker and
appraiser, a false down payment, and inflating
property value.
read
story from the Plain Dealer .
Fraud
Lands Woman Prison Sentence
Christa M. Eker was sentenced to five months
in prison after admitting to cooperating in
a scheme that 6 others have been sentenced for
and in which false deeds and other documents
were used to get title to properties and then
use these as collateral to obtain more than
$2.5 million in loans.
read
story from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
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Patrick
Crowley is fraud journalist for MortgageDaily.com
and a reporter and columnist
for The Cincinnati Enquirer.
Email Patrick at: PatCrowley@FraudBlogger.com |
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