My favorite living example of what not to do in real estate, Casey Serin, will have two of his properties go to foreclosure auction today. Oddly he seems fairly excited about it at his iamfacingforeclosure.com blog. He is hoping to video tape it. He also believes he will not and does not deserve to serve time for his crimes because he has blogged about it and that should be punishment enough. Silly silly boy.
Federal judges sentenced 46-year-old John Wagner to three years and a month in prison. They sentenced 38-year-old Frankie Lamont Howard to two years in prison. Their crimes? Mortgage fraud. Wagner and Howard were involved a scheme that obtained more than $4 million in fraudulent mortgage loans on houses in Indianapolis.
Howard purchased properties for market value in low-income neighborhoods in Indianapolis. He then recruited buyers who purchased the properties at a greatly inflated value. Howard helped the buyers obtain financing through a mortgage broker whom he knew would cooperate. Howard assisted in creating the false documentation and applications to obtain financing. Howard arranged for inflated appraisals to substantiate the inflated purchase price. After closing, Howard paid cash to the buyer as a 'kickback'.
Basically he lied, his buddies lied, now they are going to jail. Of course a lot of people were damaged in the process. Casey, are you listening?
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