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CdM Man Wanted In Connection With Appraisal Fraud Case
posted: December 21st, 2009 05:14 pm |
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A 32-year-old Corona del Mar man has been charged with felony conspiracy to defraud another of property, 17 counts of grand theft by false pretense, two felony counts of identity theft and two felony counts of false personation, according to a statement released this afternoon by the Orange County District Attorney’s office.
A father, 60, and son, 28, from Laguna Beach also were charged with the same counts as part of a scheme to inflate property appraisal values in order to secure more business with lending institutions. If convicted, each defendant could face 18 years in state prison. The father and son were arrested last week in Laguna Beach and are free on $100,000 bail, and a warrant has been issued for the Corona del Mar man.
According to the district attorney’s office release, the father owned an operated an Irvine-based appraisal firm, Landmark Equities Group, from 2005 to 2007. The son and the other man were hired as executives.
Landmark worked with a subprime mortgage company owned by the victim of a recent home-invasion robbery, the statement said.
The charged men, the statement said, “are accused of falsifying appraisals by inflating the prices of properties in order to increase their business by making themselves more appealing to lenders than their appraisal competitors. Lenders make a greater profit when they give higher loans on properties with higher appraisal values.”
The inflated appraisals were of properties in California, Arizona and Nevada. The men are accused of opening three branch offices to expedite the appraisal process and handle the high volume of appraisals generated by the subprime company. The men are accused of unlocking other employees’ original appraisers, removing negative comments to increase the appraised value, and submitting revised appraisals either under their own names, or the original appraiser’s.
The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with additional information is encouraged to contact Supervising District Attorney Investigator Ron Frazier at (714) 347-8691. Anyone who believes they have been a victim of real estate fraud may download and fill out a complaint form on the Orange County District Attorney’s website.
