Stanislaus County DA Charges Three In Alleged Scam Involving Recording Phony Lien Satisfactions

In Stanislaus County, California, The Modesto Bee reports:

• [I]nvestigators with the Stanislaus County district attorney's office arrested James Lee Lankford, 69, who established Century 21 Apollo more than 26 years ago, and Dr. Dennise Ann Davis, 55, an obstetrician [...] in Modesto. Stelios Papadopoulos, 74, a Century 21 broker who works with Lankford, also was arrested.(1)

• According to an affidavit filed with the Stanislaus County clerk by the district attorney's office: Lankford helped Davis obtain a $22,400 second mortgage on a $112,000 home she was buying in 1993. The first lender, American Savings Bank, was unaware of the second mortgage and thought Davis was putting her own earnest money down on the loan.

• The lender on the second mortgage, Jewel Young, died in 1995; the next year, Davis stopped making payments. Davis sold the house in 1999 for $125,000, after Lankford, Davis and Papadopoulos filed fraudulent documents eliminating the second mortgage debt. The documents had the forged signature of Young, four years after her death. The documents were notarized by Papadopoulos, and also signed by Lankford. The incident came to light early this year when Young's nephew found the original loan documents in storage and went to a title company for help.

Source: 3 Modestans are arrested in mortgage scam (Century 21 Apollo founder and doctor among suspects).

For story update, see:

• Charges of fraud draw new complaints against Modesto real estate executive (DA investigating claims by widow and others against owner of real estate firm),
• Timeline of claims and allegations against Jim Lankford,
• Complaint For Damages against Jim Lankford and Century 21 Apollo by another Modesto area resident alleging undue influence in connection with real estate transactions.

(1) According to the story, the three suspects are charged with forgery, filing a fraudulent document with the county recorder, providing false information to a lender to obtain a mortgage loan and two counts of grand theft; Papadopoulos faces a sixth count of deed-of-trust fraud. Jim Lankford