Lawsuit: Operators Of Bogus Real Estate Investment Seminar Used Participant Questionaire To Get, Use Property ID Info To Score Forged Mortgage Loans

In Orange County, California, Courthouse News Service reports:

• California couple say they were victimized by operators of a "real estate seminar" who had them fill out forms describing real estate they owned, then used the information to "brazenly forge" their names and get "a fraudulent $245,000 loan" secured by their property.



• Gerald and Marilyn Hays sued a long list of defendants - 12 people and seven corporations(1) - in a racketeering complaint in Orange County Court. The Hays say the scammers "marketed a 'real estate seminar'" that supposedly would teach "the topic of purchasing properties at a short sale and reselling the properties at a profit."



• The complaint continues: "In fact, and unknown to attendees, the 'seminars' were a method used by defendants to advance their fraudulent scheme.



• At the seminars, guests were asked to fill out questionnaires seeking the identification of real estate that they owned. Defendants' fraudulent purpose in seeking such information was to obtain title and other data concerning the third party's properties.



• Defendants thereafter used that data in their fraudulent schemes; fraudulently obtaining title insurance for the fraudulent transactions in order to inter alia sell the fraudulently obtained properties to third parties that they in fact did not own; and fraudulently placing 'loans' on unencumbered property that defendants did not own without the true owners' consent."

For more, see Couple Call Real Estate 'Seminar' a Scam.

For the lawsuit, see Hays v. Shallup, et al.

Thanks to Deontos for the heads-up on this story.

(1) According to the story, the individual defendants are John Shallup, George G. Grachen and his daughter Katie Grachen, Pete Rossell, Robert Yann, Salem Abbadi, Joyce Kim, James A. Santan, Kaffi Botehsazan, Joanna G. Martinez, Edward Park and Aladdin Alsarairah. The corporate defendants are Financial and Real Estate Services Inc., Above Board Real Estate Solutions, Jo Cal Investments, United Escrow Co., Orange Coast Title Company of Southern California, Bency 26 LLC, and Merchants Bonding Company.