Sunday, October 05, 2008

South Florida Feds Indict Suspect In Alleged Complex Scam That Falsified Lien Status Of Homes; Deceived 3rd Party Bidders To Buy At Foreclosure Sales

Th U.S Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida recently announced:
  • [O]n September 25, 2008, a federal grand jury returned a 22-count Indictment charging Sergej Tews in a complex fraud scheme involving the abuse of the State of Florida’s foreclosure process. Through this fraudulent scheme, Tews defrauded third-party purchasers [at court-ordered foreclosure sales] seeking to buy allegedly foreclosed properties of approximately $615,900.

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  • At the foreclosure sales, third-party purchasers, deceived by Tews’s fraudulent warranty deeds and mortgages into believing that there were no pre-existing mortgages, bid on, and sometimes purchased, the properties. As a result of his scheme, Tews received approximately $615,900 into his bank accounts. The actual, outstanding lenders have since foreclosed on the properties.

For more, see U.S. Attorney press release (2nd case summary: United States v. Sergej Tews).