Feds Describe Elaborate Alleged Flipping / Money Laundering Scam Involving Failed Minneapolis Condo Project

In Minnesota, The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports:

• Federal investigators have identified the majority development partner in the troubled Sexton condominium project as the central figure in a mortgage fraud scheme involving about one-quarter of the units sold in the downtown Minneapolis building. In an affidavit filed [last] week in U.S. District Court in St. Paul, IRS agents say Brett Thielen orchestrated a mortgage flipping scheme involving 13 units at the redeveloped commercial building at 521 S. 7th St.

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• The Sexton has 123 units, but fewer than 50 were ever sold, according to Hennepin County property records. The affidavit says Thielen laundered proceeds from the scheme by having his lawyer, Ben Houge, wire money to a lawyer in Australia, who then wired the money back to Thielen and others taking part in the mortgage fraud.

For more, see Feds outline condo fraud scheme (Investigators describe an elaborate scam at the Sexton project in downtown Minneapolis that included laundering illegal profits through a lawyer in Australia).

Go here for other posts on the Federal mortgage fraud investigation involving The Sexton.