Report: Majority Of Bogus, Inflated Recorded Sales Prices At Orlando-Area Foreclosure Auctions Tied To Six Investor Groups

In Orlando, Florida, the Orlando Sentinel reports:

• A small group of private investors has overpaid taxes on more than 100 Orange County real-estate purchases since January 2010, artificially inflating recorded sales prices to show the properties sold for $2.77 million more than the investors paid.
• The pattern of overpayments — by companies with names such as AA Florida Home Buyers LLC and The Seven Secrets Group LLC — emerged in an Orlando Sentinel review of thousands of foreclosure-auction records kept by the Orange County Clerk of Courts. The Sentinel analysis of foreclosure-auction sales in 2010 and the first quarter of 2011 found 101 examples of so-called "grossed up" sale prices.
• Overpayments of documentary-stamp taxes after the foreclosure sales first came to light in mid-April when the paper became aware of 11 cases. The number of confirmed cases grew nearly tenfold with the review of records.
• By overpaying the tax, investors increased the recorded sale prices for their purchases, disguising the eventual profits made when flipping many of the properties to new buyers.

For more, see Most bogus foreclosure auction prices in Orange tied to 6 investor groups.

(1) According to the story, the majority were purchases made by six investor groups: AA Florida Home Buyers LLC, The Seven Secrets Group LLC, CPR Wholesale & Investment Properties LLC, Global Funding & Development Inc., JJJ Family LLLP and UBON LLC. Dozens of other investors paid the proper taxes. Their sale prices appear accurately in public records, the story states.