California Cops Raid Mortgage Company; Records Confiscated

In Grass Valley, California, TheUnion.com reports:

• Law enforcement agents seized documents Friday from the office of a Grass Valley mortgage company after an eight-month investigation identified suspicious real-estate loans and investments. Officials from the California Department of Justice, the Grass Valley Police Department and the Nevada County District Attorney's office removed documents from Loan Sense, a Grass Valley office owned by Tom Hastert, a lawyer who also owns a real estate company.

[...]

• Grass Valley police, the D.A.'s office, state officials, the FBI, the California Department of Real Estate and the California Bar Association have been investigating Hastert since January. [...] "I feel he has committed fraud, larceny and embezzlement. He has used his position as an attorney to gain trust with people and encourage them to invest their money with him," [one investor] alleged.

Most of the investors were elderly people trying to invest their retirement money, according to a Grass Valley police spokesperson. For more, see Raid on mortgage company in fraud probe.

For story updates, see:

• Loan Sense accounts remain frozen (Hastert’s brother has yet to submit paperwork) (1-28-08),
• Hearing today in fraud probe (Judge to consider freeing up frozen loan accounts) (10-18-07),
• Investors vent anger amid fraud probe (With mortgage company's accounts frozen, lenders and borrowers demand answers) (10-5 -07),
• Investors, DA to meet in loan fraud probe (10-3-07).