NJ AG Files Civil RICO Charges Against Alleged Flippers; Accused Of Using Unwitting Investors To Pocket Big Profits, Leaving Them Holding The Bag

In Northern New Jersey, WABC-TV Channel 7 reports:

• There are major developments in an Eyewitness News investigation. The New Jersey Attorney General's office is filing civil RICO (racketeering) charges against a disbarred lawyer and his son, accusing them in a widespread investment scheme.

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• The defendants, Seth and Marty Gendel, ran a property management firm in Totowa, New Jersey. They are accused by the Attorney General's office of orchestrating a pattern of racketeering that included making false promises to investors, submitting fraudulent mortgage applications and failing to make mortgage payments, resulting in ruined credit.

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• In the complaint, the Attorney General's office alleges the Gendels, mortgage brokers and others conspired in a pattern of racketeering to solicit investors to buy properties in distressed neighborhoods at grossly inflated prices to generate unwarranted profits for themselves. [...] The investors say the Gendels promised to manage the homes and pay the mortgages, but then came the foreclosure notices and destroyed credit.

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• The AG's office claims many homes in the Gendel scheme have been condemned, left vacant or abandoned. [...] Sources say that there is also an ongoing criminal investigation into the Gendels and others.

For more, see Racketeering scheme in New Jersey.

For more from the New Jersey Attorney General's Office, see:

• Lawsuit: Milgram v. Casey Properties, LLC, et al.,
• Press Release: Attorney General Announces Three New Mortgage Fraud Complaints (Disbarred Lawyer, Son Sued for Racketeering; Loan Modification Businesses Charged).

The ten defendants in this case are: Casey Properties, LLC; Seth L. Gendel; Martin A. Gendel; Lee Alan LLP; Francis T. Memmo; Kelly Kotzker; Damien Figueroa; Edward Evans; Nicholas Manzi; and Robert B. "Barry" McBriar.