Twenty-Eight Have Been Successfully Prosecuted in Past Three Years
In a warning to real estate professionals, U.S. Attorney for the Western Division of North Carolnia Gretchen Shappert said mortgage fraud has cost Charlotte area lender $64 Million in recent years. According to Shappert, state and federal authorities have successfully prosecuted 28 lenders, mortgage brokers, closing attorneys, appraisers, builders, sales promoters and others in the past three years.
Four major cases have been investigated and prosecuted in recent years:
• Operation Clean Deed. This case involved eight associated operations that were accused of recruiting buyers, inflating property values and splitting the excess loan proceeds between the participants. The following eleven defendants pleaded guilty in the case: builders Greg Smith and Jim Mann, mortgage broker Lorenza Clark, lawyers Leon Orr Jr. and Jeffrey Hopkins and promoters Gordon George, Kenneth Strong, William Phillips, Bryn Robinson, Don Henderson and Duane Montgomery.
• Mega Group of Charlotte and Jalen Investment Inc. of Raleigh. The conspirators recruited buyers to invest in new homes. They were accused of falsifying buyer finances on loan documents, inflating home values and promising to provide renters. Five defendants pleaded guilty: promoters Christopher Hines, Eric Crawford and James Bullock, recruiter Joseph Goines and appraiser Amanda Eick. Those convicted were: lawyer S. Allen Patterson and mortgage brokers Nicole Crites and Marvin Keitt.
• Operation Dirty Deed. The conspirators were accused of recruiting buyers, using inflated appraisals and promising renters that the mortgages would be paid. Two defendants pleaded guilty: promoter Antonio Randolph and lawyer Jeffrey Hopkins.
• First Beneficial Mortgage. James McLean, who owned First Beneficial, Charlotte, was accused of selling $23 million in false mortgages on the secondary market. McLean was convicted and sentenced to 21 years in prison and his wife, Macy McLean, the company’s vice president, was sentenced to eight years. Five others were convicted or pleaded guilty.
I am a victim of mortgage fraud. I was recruited by a mortgage broker to purchase several investment properties. I had great credit and thought this was an opportuity to get into real estate investment. Conseqently this broker also had a property management company. Needless to say, I was receiving false statements and when I realized something wasn’t right. Two of my properties were foreclosed and the third was in the process. Also, the property management company had one of my properties rented as section 8 and collected the checks and never paid the mortgage, per some investigation. This broker has committed mortgage fraud in Knoxville, Memphis, SC and Charlotte and has left many victims per the bank investigators. Several of the victims and I have been in contact and would like to pursue civil action against this individual and his companies. Can you recommend any attorneys to help us with this? Thanks in advance!
Im trying to help my mother. She bought a house in 1984 for 32.000.00 and now she still owes 43.000.00. The banks have changed five times and she hasent missed a payment. We have all the paperwork to prove it. Need help !!!!
Haveing a problem with the morgage on my mothers house, need help.
Me as well as 5 other members of my husbands family are victims of mortgage fraud. we were recruited by a family member of one of my sister in laws. We thought we were just buying an investment property at the time. We currently have an attorney in knoxville, but he has done nothing in the past 8 months but received $25,000 from us. All our properties went to foreclosure anyway.
you are not alone,i also became the victim of a similar scamm that also involves a broker that also owns the management company that manages my properties in the carolinas,the cash on cash returns that were put forth in their fabricated portfolios have been coming in way below expectations,that plus the inflated cost of maintaining those properties under their managements bad habbits are killing me,iv’e come to the point of taking on the repairs and rent ready dutties on my own,relying strictly on craigs list advertising,so far i managed to find probably the only honest contractor in the carolinas to help cope w/repairs for a reasonable fees.as for the lenders of those investment properties i’ve been able to rework on four of them so far,i provided them w/comps that were provided by three different real estate companys and they all came to the same conclusion, that i got scammed.looking for some guidence,i wonder who if anyone regulates the management companies in the carolinas? need someone to help me out of this delema,all those properties were sevierly over inflated in price,like i told the lenders i just don’t know how they got passed the banks underiters.