Mortgage Fraud Fugitive Busted
CBS News producer Stephanie Lambidakis wrote this story for cbsnews.com.
With the FBI drowning in mortgage fraud cases -- more than 1,300 and still climbing -- the Bureau has gotten a big break with the arrest of a New Jersey fugitive who allegedly masterminded a mortgage fraud scheme that defrauded major banks some $20 million.
The suspect, Jacob Kim, of Palisades Park, N.J., was hitting golf balls on a driving range when officers moved in. According to the narrative from the U.S. Attorney's office in Newark, a stunned Kim looked at them "like it was over " while officers confiscated $48 thousand in cash from his pocket.
Kim took elaborate steps to avoid detection, according to U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie, by donning wigs and other disguises, using aliases, and never sleeping in the same place too long. Kim, with the help of a dozen underlings, is accused of fooling 16 different lenders into believing they were doling out home equity and business lines to credit to different homeowners when in fact a single property was being used as collateral over and over again. Kim maneuvered to close the loans in quick succession before they were publicly recorded, which meant the banks could not see that each was making the same fradulent loan. In one instance, a Kim "client" used less than $300 thousand in equity in a Palisades Park property to obtain more than $2 million in credit from nine different banks.
Ten people have already pleaded guilty, and more charges are expected. U.S. Attorney Christie said that despite the complexity of the scheme, the voluminous paper trail eventually led them to Kim and his co-conspirators.
By Stephanie Lambidakis
By Stephanie Lambidakis
Copyright 2009 CBS. All rights reserved. With the FBI drowning in mortgage fraud cases -- more than 1,300 and still climbing -- the Bureau has gotten a big break with the arrest of a New Jersey fugitive who allegedly masterminded a mortgage fraud scheme that defrauded major banks some $20 million.
The suspect, Jacob Kim, of Palisades Park, N.J., was hitting golf balls on a driving range when officers moved in. According to the narrative from the U.S. Attorney's office in Newark, a stunned Kim looked at them "like it was over " while officers confiscated $48 thousand in cash from his pocket.
Kim took elaborate steps to avoid detection, according to U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie, by donning wigs and other disguises, using aliases, and never sleeping in the same place too long. Kim, with the help of a dozen underlings, is accused of fooling 16 different lenders into believing they were doling out home equity and business lines to credit to different homeowners when in fact a single property was being used as collateral over and over again. Kim maneuvered to close the loans in quick succession before they were publicly recorded, which meant the banks could not see that each was making the same fradulent loan. In one instance, a Kim "client" used less than $300 thousand in equity in a Palisades Park property to obtain more than $2 million in credit from nine different banks.
Ten people have already pleaded guilty, and more charges are expected. U.S. Attorney Christie said that despite the complexity of the scheme, the voluminous paper trail eventually led them to Kim and his co-conspirators.
By Stephanie Lambidakis
By Stephanie Lambidakis
Beware Of These Fraudulent Foreclosure Notices Being Filed as they are from Real Estate Fraud Scammers/Fraudsters. Many of these Notices of Defaults now being filed are just more Real Estate Fraud. Many of these Notices of Default are not real, they are fraudulent and they are just another way to steal houses. Then the fraudster ?sells? the stolen house under a fraudulent Trustee?s Deed. By the time the homeowner and real and lawful lender finds out, it?s a huge legal nightmare, and the fraudsters are off with a lot of illegally obtained cash in their rotten pockets.
Too many title companies and sheriff?s offices are just accepting at face value these Notices of Default without actually verifying them against the actual Deed of Trust as to who really has the lawful authority to foreclose.
If you get one of those dreaded Notice of Default?s filed against your home, check out the facts first. Like is the one that filed that Notice of Default the one with the lawful authority to do so? Guess what? The vast majority of the time, they don?t! They claim to have the authority, but don?t believe it. Make them prove it to you.
If it?s not the party written in your Deed of Trust, a legal trail must be established as to how the alleged party now foreclosing is lawfully involved and has the lawful authority to do so. That included if your loan has been sold one or more times from who you originally did the loan with. There has to be provided to you the trail of legal transfers.
So that?s for the lender. You?re the Trustor so it?s the same for the Trustee and the Beneficiary. If the ones claiming to now be the Trustee and the Beneficiary are not the ones written in your Deed of Trust, these now alleged Trustee and the Beneficiary all have to legally prove how they now have lawful authority to foreclose.
Read your Deed of Trust to find out who the parties are that have legal authority to foreclose. It will be in your closing documents you got from escrow. If you can?t find your Deed of Trust, don?t worry. It?s filed at the country recorder?s office. You can either get a copy from there, or from any local title/escrow company.
Your Note will also be in your escrow docs you got when you bought the house. NEVER give a copy your Note to the ones doing the foreclosure. Odds are they don?t have the original let along a copy. Without the original Note, which the one doing the foreclosing has to produce, they can?t lawfully foreclose. The law requires the one doing the foreclosing has to produce the original note. Make them prove to you they have the original Note.
For example, RECONSTRUCT COMPANY filed a Notice of Default. Yet, there?s NO evidence RECONSTRUCT COMPANY has lawful authority to do what they have done, which is,
1. According to the NOTICE OF DEFAULT, ?RECORDING REQUESTED BY RECONSTRUCT COMPANY.?
RECONSTRUCT COMPANY appears instead to be engaged in fraud. According to ?Important Legal Notice NOTICE OF DEFAULT, RECONSTRUCT COMPANY, N.A., acting in its capacity as agent for the beneficiary,? alleges it?s the agent for the beneficiary and that ?the Creditor to whom the debt is owed is Countrywide Home Loans.?
WRONG
1. RECONSTRUCT COMPANY is NOT the agent for the beneficiary.
2. Countrywide Home Loans is NOT the Creditor.
Here?s why:
1. RECONSTRUCT COMPANY has provided NO evidence that they are their claimed "agent for the beneficiary.?
2. According to the Deed of Trust RECONSTRUCT COMPANY references, the lender is Colonial Bank, N.A.
According to ?Nevada Important Notice RECONSTRUCT COMPANY, N.A., claims to be ?the duly appointed Trustee under a Deed of Trust?
WRONG
1. Reconstruct Company is NOT the duly appointed Trustee under the referenced Deed of Trust
Here?s why:
1. According to the Deed of Trust RECONSTRUCT COMPANY references, the Trustee is FIRST CENTENNIAL TITLE COMPANY.
According to the Deed of Trust RECONSTRUCT COMPANY references, the ?Trustee shall give public notice of the sale to the persons and in the manner prescribed by Applicable Law.? The Trustee according to the Deed of Trust RECONSTRUCT COMPANY references, is FIRST CENTENNIAL TITLE COMPANY. FIRST CENTENNIAL TITLE COMPANY has failed to ?give public notice of the sale to the persons and in the manner prescribed by Applicable Law.?
http://www.broowaha.com/articles/3825/beware-of-fraudulent-foreclosure-notices
Also, in the last couple days, I had several people tell me about an attack at UNR. Be on the look-out for a Chinese looking male in a blue pick-up truck with Nevada plate 188-URR. If you see this truck, immediately call 911 and report its location and that it is the truck sought in the UNR attack on a retired professor.
http://reno.broowaha.com/article.php?id=3415
http://reno.broowaha.com/article.php?id=3300
http://reno.broowaha.com/article.php?id=3320
http://reno.broowaha.com/article.php?id=3351
http://reno.broowaha.com/article.php?id=3372
http://reno.broowaha.com/article.php?id=3377
http://reno.broowaha.com/article.php?id=3397
http://reno.broowaha.com/article.php?id=3404
http://reno.broowaha.com/article.php?id=3421
http://reno.broowaha.com/article.php?id=3430
http://reno.broowaha.com/article.php?id=3448
For copies of the supporting documents that have been uploaded, see http://renomortgagefraudexposes.ning.com/