The "Happy Greek" Restaurant - Home Of The $5.50 Gyro Sandwich (and "Cash Back" Mortgage Fraud Operation?)

A mortgage fraud investigation by the Columbus, Ohio Police Department's Economic Crimes Unit has led to a seizure last week of "computers, mortgage files, counterfeit cash, phony immigration documents and fake driver's licenses, according to affidavits and evidence logs filed in Franklin County Municipal Court." So says an article in The Columbus Dispatch, reported at columbusdispatch.com, which reports that simultaneous searches by investigators were made of the Happy Greek restaurant, a home the restaurant owners share and the apartment of a property appraiser that yielded all of the above listed evidence.

Authorities believe that the Happy Greek owners ran a multimillion dollar "cash back" mortgage fraud ring, involving foreigners buying houses in elite central Ohio neighborhoods, from the restaurant's basement office.

Arrests have yet to be made.

Highlights of the article include reports, claims, or allegations that:

• People were buying upscale homes for upwards of $250,000 more than the asking price,
• Home sellers were immediately refunding the extra money (giving the "cash back"),
• The "cash back" was earmarked on loan documents for home improvements that were never done,
• Weeks and months later, the newly purchased homes remain vacant,
• At least four remodeling companies, which existed only on paper to defraud lenders, were controlled by the co-owners of the Happy Greek,
• Eight deals handled by one title closing agent resulted in $1.4 million being funneled to the phony remodeling companies,
• The people under suspicion have been described as foreign nationals from the Middle East,
• A husband and wife, linked to the suspicious deals, reportedly have already fled the country,
• The Happy Greek owners have reportedly been "relieved of their passports" by authorities.

For the whole story, see Owners ran mortgage scam from Happy Greek, officials say
.