Federal Fraud Allegations Against Atlanta Attorneys Dismissed

Atlanta Federal prosecutors quietly dismissed mortgage fraud charges last week against attorneys Michael A. Brochstein of the Atlanta firm Brochstein & Bantley and sole practitioner Russell H. Hippe III, according to an article in the Daily Report. They had been under federal indictment since October 2005.

Sharel L. Payne, a third attorney who was indicted along with Brochstein and Hippe, remains under indictment. The government has certified her case as ready for trial along with five other co-defendants, including accused ringleader Nathan Parker. The case involves a now seemingly standard alleged straw buyer, flipping scam (ie. "recruited middlemen [used] to masquerade as fictional, or “straw,” buyers and sellers using fictitious or misappropriated identities, use of faulty appraisals and fictional, quick sales to inflate artificially the value and prices of Atlanta real estate").

To read more, see Charges against two attorneys dismissed (A third attorney who voluntarily surrendered her law license still is under federal indictment in the bank fraud case)

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