Foreclosure Rescue Equity Stripping Scam Among Ripoffs Totaling $200K+ Allegedly Perpetrated By Twin Cities' 'Theft By Swindle' Suspect

From the County Attorney's Office for Dakota County, Minnesota:

• Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom announced that James Michael Hayden, age 36 of Burnsville, has been charged with a series of crimes relating to mortgage and home foreclosure scams from 2011-2013. Specifically, Hayden has been charged with three counts of Theft by Swindle of over $35,000 (all felonies).
  
  These charges relate to allegations that Hayden convinced various individuals and friends he had met through business contacts and through his children’s participation in various sports and activities, to invest with him and his business (JMH Properties LLC) in apparent efforts to purchase various homes subject to foreclosure in Burnsville, Lakeville and other communities in the Twin Cities.
  
  Hayden promised these individuals profit sharing related to their investments once the properties had been purchased and later sold. In most of these cases, Hayden and his business never purchased the properties for which these investments were intended.
  
  In one case, Hayden convinced a homeowner whose home was subject to foreclosure to sell it to a third party investor, promising profit sharing the homeowner never received and money up front, some of which was never received.
  
  In another case, Hayden had a contractor who had invested with him on two properties also perform roofing work on a home of one of Hayden’s relatives for which the contractor never received payment. Hayden returned little or none of the initial investments made by nine victims who have been identified to date. In total, between $200,000 and $250,000 is alleged to have been stolen in these schemes.

For the Dakota County Attorney's press release, see Burnsville Man Charged in Mortgage and Home Foreclosure Scams.