Megan McGuire, Miramar, Florida, pled guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and/or wire fraud and aggravated identity theft and Christine A. Brown pled guilty to one court of aggravated identity theft.
McGuire and Brown are both scheduled to be sentenced in May 2007 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. At sentencing, McGuire faces a maximum statutory sentence of up to five years’ imprisonment and Brown faces mandatory sentence of two years’ imprisonment. They are the sixth and seventh defendants to plead guilty in connection with Operation Whose House, a $10,000,000 scheme to defraud mortgage lenders.
According to the charges and evidence in the case, the defendants devised a scheme to enrich themselves by obtaining mortgages from lenders using straw purchasers and through the submission of false documentation, including false loan applications, false employment verification forms, false salary statements, and false bank account statements reflecting high account balances. The defendants also used and caused others to use false or stolen Florida’s driver’s licenses, identification cards, and social security numbers as their personal identification at closings to purchase property in the names of individuals whose identification documents had been previously stolen.
a million here and a million there, pretty soon you are talking about some real money.
I was a seller, unknowingly, involved in one of these cons. Tied up my house w/ the bogus contract/closing BS for 4 months.
I asked my realter, how to check for this in future deals. His answer, “I don’t know.” And this was a ‘monstor’ realty agent w/ years in the biz.
How do you find out if there was really any money put into escrow? I have an reciept for $10K that is apparently worthless.
Frustrating, and as far as I can tell, could happen again, tho I might do a credit check on the buyer, but what if it’s a straw buyer using ID theft?
Where does the rubber meet the road. How do you find out if it is a real deal?
I am not sure what your state law is? However, in the VA, you have to deposit these monies within 5 days. Depending on who is holding the escrow, preferably the realty company representing you. They can confirm if the check cleared and the money is in their bank. You can also request to get certified funds only. You can also request that seller (which is you) hold the escrow monies, you will just have to open up an escrow account and cant touc it. Else, you will be guilty of comingling. There are many many ways to avoid this. Frankly, this monster agent is pretty dumb. No matter how many years you have in business, if you dont know the answer to small things like this. You should seriously rethink, if you really want to be represnted by such an idiot.