Thursday, April 15, 2010

Jury Convicts Real Estate Agent In Mortgage Payment Skimming Scam Involving Naive Homebuyers, Unwitting Straw Purchaser

In Kitchener, Ontario, The Record reports:
  • A former Cambridge real estate agent was found guilty [] of defrauding clients in three shady house deals. Steven Stojadinovich, 49, was also convicted by a jury in Superior Court in Kitchener of six counts of forgery while scamming naïve buyers in 2005 and 2006.

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  • David Embro and his former wife, Natasha, thought they had bought their first house through Stojadinovich by assuming an existing mortgage. After making payments directly to Stojadinovich for about six months, they were suddenly evicted with their four young children. The family had to move so quickly, loading what they could into a single truck, that many of their belongings were left behind and ended up in the garbage.

  • It turned out the Embros had never actually owned the [] property despite giving Stojadinovich $11,000 as a down payment and making “mortgage” payments, often in cash, when he came to the house.

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  • Central to the deals [...] was Ryan Dewulf, a young man with a good job and good credit whom Stojadinovich had befriended. Dewulf was sued and had to declare bankruptcy after Stojadinovich repeatedly used him to buy properties he could then resell with assumable mortgages.

For more, see Cambridge realtor convicted of scamming naïve buyers.