Minnesota Feds Meet With 200+ Renters, Would-Be Homeowners In Parish Marketing Mess

In New Prague, Minnesota, the Pioneer Press reports:

• Federal investigators asked for an earful from New Prague residents who could lose their homes as a result of one of the largest cases of mortgage fraud in Minnesota history. It looks like the officials got what they wanted. To make room for dozens of hurt, angry and confused renters and would-be homeowners, they borrowed a church. More than 200 residents of the Prague Estates community crowded into Holy Trinity Lutheran Church on Thursday night to meet with Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Dixon, Senior U.S. Probation Agent Bernadette Valento and Gary Hansen, a court-appointed receiver.

• The officials hoped to determine what kind of sentences they should seek in the case of Michael and Ardith Parish, Eagan homebuilders who used fraudulent mortgage loans to keep their company afloat. The Parishes, both in their 60s, pleaded guilty in November to playing lead roles in the mortgage scheme, which involved almost 200 homes across the metro area that are now in various stages of foreclosure. More than 100 of them are in New Prague.

For more, see New Prague / Home fraud victims vent anger to authorities (Recommended sentences for Parish mortgage scam will reflect residents' losses).

Go here for earlier posts on Minnesota homebuilder Parish Marketing and Development.