SF Man Gets 16 Months In $100K+ Ripoff Of Homebuyer In Bogus F'closure Rescue Deal; $3K Restitution Offer To Buy Out Jail Time "A Bribe": Prosecutor

In Napa, California, the Napa Valley Register reports:

• A San Francisco man who scammed a Napa homebuyer out of more than $100,000 will serve 16 months in prison for the crime. Eric Kheng Yim, 35, pleaded no contest in August to grand theft and promised to repay the victim in the case.

• In early 2008, Yim and his business partner Eddie Ceballos, who operated SAP Investments, approached a couple who were struggling to keep their home [...] and offered to help them, Deputy District Attorney Jose Rossi said. He then contacted the couple’s neighbor, Antonio Parra, and offered to sell the home to him. Parra knew Ceballos and trusted him, and they negotiated a price of $375,000, Rossi said.

• In April 2008, Parra gave Yim $30,000 that he had saved and took out an additional $70,000 loan, he said. “They never owned the property or had any legal right to the property,” Rossi said. Yim took the money and disappeared, Rossi said. The homeowner lost the home to foreclosure.

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• At Yim’s sentencing Wednesday, Rossi asked for two years in state prison. He noted that Yim brought a $3,000 check for the victim to the hearing, but called it a “bribe.” “This defendant is the worst type of financial predator,” he said. He took advantage of hard-working people in difficult situations, Rossi said.(1)

For more, see Man gets 16 months for selling home he didn’t own.

(1) Reportedly, Yim’s defense attorney asked Judge Mark Boessenecker to give Yim probation so he could work to pay Parra back. “If he goes to jail, that will be the end of his business and the end of his ability to pay restitution,” he said of Yim’s photography studio. Judge Boessenecker set restitution at $140,479, the story states.