Sunday, July 20, 2008

Investigative Report Seeks Answers In Alleged "Land Patent" Foreclosure Rescue Scheme

In San Diego, California, the KGTV Channel 10 I-Team reports:
  • The I-Team has been looking for Larry Smith for quite some time. When we found him, he refused to talk to us. But we know this confidence man has no problem talking to his victims. There are hundreds of them in Southern California. Victims like Mili Alto, who attended a Smith sales presentation in downtown San Diego. Mili said, "According to him and everybody this was the solution."

  • Smith's solution is land patents; he claims these patents would prevent homeowners from losing their homes through foreclosure.

***

  • Land patents cannot help distressed homeowners, experts said. "It is a false claim," said Steve Robinson from the Economic Crimes Division of the District Attorneys office. "... a fiction that has been made up by people to justify separating folks from their hard earned money," Robinson said. "The one thread you will see in all these scams is the promise to solve the foreclosure problem by taking money up front."

For more, see I-Team Pursues Man Suspected In Land Patent Scheme (read story) (watch video).