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Strategies & Market Trends : The Residential Real Estate Crash Index -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: GraceZ who wrote (21315)	6/4/2004 9:23:05 AM
From: GraceZ	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

Looking for the Sun article on flipping, I found a sponsored link: foreclosureclues.com And an article on the trials of three people found guilty of "flipping". baltimore.bizjournals.com Three found guilty in local 'flipping' scheme Rachel Sams Staff After a six-week trial, a federal jury last week returned guilty verdicts on mail and wire fraud charges against three people in a mortgage flipping scheme, including a local lawyer and title company owner. The jury convicted Kelly Johnston Chase, 38, of Columbia, owner of Performance Title; Howard County-based attorney Frederic Leffler; and David Allen Ulrich, age 53, of Vienna, Va. The charges arose from a property "flipping" scheme devised by Walter Hammond, 48, of Davidsonville. Hammond pled guilty two weeks into the trial. Two co-defendants, 36-year-old Christopher Francis of Cape Coral, Fla. and 72-year-old Joyce Lehew of Selbyville, Del., previously pled guilty. In mortgage flipping schemes, investors buy rundown homes, then turn around and sell them at inflated prices to low-income buyers. Trial evidence indicated that from 1997 to early 2000, Hammond induced people to buy property in Baltimore City by applying for mortgage loans. Hammond acquired control of about 200 inner-city properties. Evidence indicated that settlements of 150 of those properties closed at a title company in which Chase had an ownership interest. The government said Chase's title companies closed settlements for Hammond without the borrower producing the necessary funds. Frederic Leffler, attorney for both title companies, helped Hammond skirt requirements that the seller hold title to property for six months before a lender would make a mortgage loan, the government said. Appraiser Christopher Francis testified at trial that he inflated values of properties he appraised for Hammond. Hammond paid David Allen Ulrich to recruit borrowers from northern Virginia, the government said. When borrowers defaulted on the 200 mortgages, lenders lost the value of their loans, and the properties could not be sold to cover the loan amount. Some lenders did not foreclose on the loans because the properties would not support the costs of foreclosure, the government said. Mortgage lenders lost $4 million in the scheme. The government also said evidence showed that Hammond and Ulrich lived in luxury homes titled in the name of the same fictitious person while they were carrying out the scheme. The charges resulted from a joint investigation by Federal Bureau of Investigation agent James J. Costigan and the U.S. Attorney's Office. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joyce K. McDonald and Stephen M. Schenning. Since U.S. Attorney Thomas M. DiBiagio's office began fighting property flipping in 2000, the office has prosecuted 95 defendants. Of those, 82 have been convicted, 11 cases are pending and two have been acquitted. The defendants face maximum penalties on each count of mail and wire fraud of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The court can also order them to pay restitution. Sentencing is expected to take place this fall.

To: GraceZ who wrote (21315)	6/4/2004 10:02:45 AM
From: X Y Zebra	Respond to of 306849

I have mixed feelings about that... I mean the programs are "lax by design" well... what do they expect then... ? should the government be tried for "entrapment of stupid greedy people" ? -ggg they've got a cockroach in their free lunch... -lol if it is lax by design, (a gift in itself), then I find it quite stupid to then collude with others to increase the volume of transactions by giving them a character of a scam.... I mean setting up shop complete with "in-house-inspector, lawyer, title companies" ? this is where GREED blinds people to do STUPID things... Real estate firms doing these kinds of deals often advertise that buyers can put little - or no - money down. And they usually push to have buyers use a particular lender, home inspector and in-house attorney, said Josh Zinner, director of the Foreclosure Prevention Project for South Brooklyn Legal Services. Duh! Oh but then... lookie, lookie... the government is guilty for assisting inbreds... To avoid these scams, Zinner said, prospective buyers should call a number of lenders to see if they are getting the best deal available, get their own home inspector and hire their own, independent lawyer. excuse me... but... is that a government function? what I mean is... if you cannot figure these things by yourself and HAVE to rely on PAPAGOV to TELL YOU what is a good deal or not... perhaps.... these people ought not be buying in the first place .... no? because if you then start "facilitating" things so they can own their home.... What's the difference ? fraud by government... or fraud by enterprising [albeit stupidly] private initiative ? but hey... none of my business... stupid is as stupid does... or Just [Real] Trolling around -lol As usual... Who is going to supervise the supervisor?, and the supervisor of all of the supervisors... and so on.... let's face it, there is no vaccine to protect you against stupidity, AND stupidity is bred by promoting.... well... stupidity, lack of motivation to use one's brain... and one wonders why is it that they are outsorcing jobs ??? HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO