April 23, 2009

Home prices in Phoenix have crashed farther than anywhere in the US. Why? Because mortgage brokers, realtors and straw buyers went on a crime spree.


Some idiot realtors on commission would have had you believe that Phoenix home prices in 2005 and 2006 were justified, because there was year-round golf and pro athletes.

Price to rent?

Price to income?

Nah! Year round golf! Pro athletes!

Well, the truth is now out. Prices have crashed. The guilty are being arrested. The Big Scam is being exposed. It was just fraud. Pure and simple, obvious-as-could-be fraud. And it was rampant.

Here's just one story from the naked city. One of oh, so many.

A bunch of twenty-something conmen gamed the system, committed rampant and unchecked mortgage fraud, and the entire town went along for the ride.

Diane J. Humetewa, United States Attorney for the District of Arizona announced that on April 8, 2009, Dustin Michael Thompson, 30, and Sean Paul McLaughlin, 29, were indicted on four counts of Wire Fraud and one count of Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud as a result of their involvement in a cash back mortgage fraud scheme. Thompson was arrested on March 13, 2009 in Las Vegas on a criminal complaint and is detained pending trial. McLaughlin received a summons to appear in federal court on the charges.

Thompson ran a company called BHFC. McLaughlin was a loan officer at Alpine Lending and later Rapid One Mortgage.

Cash backs totalling over $2.6 million were received at the closing of 25 loans. The properties mentioned in the indictement are - along with the cash back from each:

41719 N Golf Crest Rd, Anthem - $39,685
4620 N 74th Place, Scottsdale - $91,484
41240 N Whistling Strait Ct, Phoenix - $65,526
4717 S. Star Canyon Dr, Gilbert - $50,000
2653 E Verbena Dr, Phoenix - $87,448
7301 E 3rd Ave #105, Scottsdale - $243,000
7301 E 3rd Ave #109, Scottsdale - $3,927
7301 E 3rd Ave #113, Scottsdale - $162,500
7301 E 3rd Ave #121, Scottsdale - $250,898
7301 E 3rd Ave #216, Scottsdale (x2) - $30,000 and later $25,236
7301 E 3rd Ave #221, Scottsdale - $9,294
7301 E 3rd Ave #317, Scottsdale - $155,000
7301 E 3rd Ave #320, Scottsdale - $226,541
7301 E 3rd Ave #408, Scottsdale - $148,213
4713 N 75th Way, Scottsdale - $88,472
7526 E Highland Ave, Scottsdale - $87,448
41717 N. Club Point Dr, Scottsdale - $100,000
41608 Congressional Dr, Phoenix - $6,500
4385 E Santa Fe Court, Gilbert - $54,507
14404 N Fountain Hills Blvd, Fountain Hills - $99,000
25067 S 190th Way, Queens Creek - $145,000
5640 E Shea Blvd, Scottsdale - $257,939
18496 E Swan Circle, Queens Creek - $91,043
18555 E Swan Circle, Queens Creek - $89,447 end

The case against the pair is based on an investigation which alleges that from October 19, 2005, through June 5, 2007, they conspired to commit mortgage fraud in the Phoenix area. Thompson and McLaughlin submitted mortgage loan applications on behalf of buyers, that included friends and family members, containing false information. Following the funding of the loans, Thompson and McLaughlin received cash back that they used for personal expenses and to perpetuate the scheme. Most of the homes purchased during the conspiracy have foreclosed.

10 comments:

Honica Jewinski said...

WooooHooooo!!!!!!!

Now that's what I call out jewing the jews!!!

Way to go brothers! I'm glad a few little guys got to get a little back from the big jewish banks!!!

yoski said...

Fraud? Maybe. But the banks were stupid enough to hand them the cash. If the banks wouldn't have been as greedy and taken a little more time to make sure that the deal is legitimate and the house is actually worth that money none of this would have happend. But of course they didn't care since they were planing to sell the fraudulent securities to suckers/investors. Now the ultimate bagholder is the tax payer and the ultimate frauster is the politician who is selling out the tax payer.
They should be investigating Schumer, Dodd, Frank, etc. They are commiting much bigger frauds than the 2 guys mentioned in the article.

yoski said...

Because it's in the desert. Why would anybody IN THEIR RIGHT MIND want to live in the desert? The rest will find out in about 10 years when water runs shy.

hudson vallley ny said...

When will reality kick in the Mid Hudson Valley NY?

Sellers and banks are still living in circa 2005

Anonymous said...

He ran the biggest private commercial mortgage lender in the state.

Ross said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
swamprat said...

After peering over my foreclosed neighbor's fence yesterday, I was inspired to start a new blog chronicling the demise of Phoenix area swimming pools and the nuisance they bring about to people that actually pay their mortgages. Please check it out and bring us any material you can to add.

Suburban SwampAlong with the picture, I've listed the current bank ownership info (which I easily found online) as well as the agent's info from the yard sign.

We need to shame the realtors and lenders into actually maintaining the properties that they're looking to make a buck from.

Prisoner No. 6 said...

This crime has been repeated endlessly around the country. The money was there, nobody seemed to care, so WTF, right?

The regulators who were supposed to be keeping an eye out for this kind of stuff had all been either fired, replaced with dimwit graduates of Liberty University, or so demoralized that they no longer bothered to do their jobs, because nobody seemed to care.

Come on all you libertarians - where's the solution to that? More deregulation? Fewer laws? Less government?

Please, explain to me how living in anarchy, with nobody minding the store, is such a superior political model.

Honica Jewinski said...

The actual mortgage lenders, you know, the place where you send your payment, are supposed to look over and okay the final HUD1 before funding the loan........

A lot of the time they didn't, this would allow the title companies to pay a consulting fee to a 3rd party. The "3rd Party" would then be able to disperse the "cash back" to the buyer/seller.

This is how the back end of this scam worked.

Anonymous said...

"...Come on all you libertarians - where's the solution to that?...

...Please, explain to me how living in anarchy, with nobody minding the store, is such a superior political model."
Imagine for just one minute that if after the start of the debacle NOT ONE NICKEL had gone to bailout ANY financial firm.

Letting the greedy bastards go BAT SHIT CRAZY with risk and fraud only worked because they knew they could hold the cowardly politicians hostage.Think about that: calls & letters 300-TO-1 against; they said "Fuck You" to all of us and wrote the checks on our account.

Absent that surety, there would have been far less insanity.

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