Foreclosure Scams Leading To Arrests

Posted in Foreclosure, May 27th, 2008 |

With more cases pouring in, foreclosure scams are now leading to arrests. In California the situation is dotted with foreclosures with scammers following close on its heels. The story is the same. The victims fell for the scheme of promises to protect properties. Hundreds of victims lost not only their houses but also tidy sums of money to these scammers. Recently four arrests have been made.

It is mostly the Latino immigrants who are being foreclosed upon. They are easy targets for these scammers. It is happening in San Diego, Riverside, San Bernardino and Los Angeles Counties. They are being duped into signing off the title deed of their houses with the lure of establishing that property as a federal land grant. The victims were made to believe that if this was done then the units could not be repossessed. In reality there is no legal basis to the argument said the Attorney General of California, Jerry Brown on Thursday 22nd May 2008. He explains “there hasn’t been a legitimate use of the land grant since the conclusion of the Mexican-American War.”

On Wednesday last, the FBI from the District Attorney’s Office of San Diego County took into custody William Hutchings (62), Xiaoke Li (43), Edgar Martinez (30) and Diego Gil (38). The first two were from San Diego. The residence of the other two remains unclear. An arrest warrant has been issued for Shawna Landis (29) residing in Sorrento Valley. They are all facing similar charges of conspiracy, theft and fraudulent practices on many counts. Their assets are being frozen together with their bank accounts. The companies through which they operated are now being placed under injunction. Penalty charges will be brought against these. The accused targeted the non-English speaking Latino house owners who were under the foreclosure cloud. They came with promises of help and assistance. The victims relied on them to stop being evicted. Hutchings has been identified as the ringleader of the nefarious scheme. The group operated through a number of limited liability corporations – Federal Land Grant Company, Land Grant Services and KBS Resources. Seminars were organized by the team in which the participants were told that if they wanted to stop the taking over of their properties they would have to sign over the deeds to any one of the corporations. Then they would record a land grant on the aforesaid property. This was their mode of operation according to court reports.