Equity Skimming Scam Lands Con Mail In Jail; Leaves Woman Homeless

In Pennsylvania, the Pocono Record reports that Sid J. Butler, 51, a Bartonsville con artist posing as a real estate broker was sentenced to six to 23 months in jail after pleading guilty to a scam that left a 63-year-old Effort woman homeless.

Reportedly, Butler, who has no real estate broker’s license, took possession of a home that had gone into foreclosure and, after the previous occupant moved out, rented the home to the victim. Butler never told her the house was in foreclosure and told her she could pay him rent with the option to buy it from him. She lived in the house for one year, paying Butler a total of $6,000 in rent over that time period. A few days after a sheriff’s deed was issued on the foreclosed property, she unwittingly issued Butler an $80,000 check to buy the home from him. After becoming aware of the foreclosure, she asked Butler for her money back. She never received her money and was ultimately evicted from the property and now lives with family in New Jersey. For more, see Con man gets county jail time for scam that left woman homeless.

For other stories on tenants unknowingly renting homes in foreclosure, go here, or here, or here. beta