Violent Ex-Felon With Ties To Prison Minister’s Foreclosure Rescue Company Scams $5500 From Homeowner

January 24, 2012 By Steve Dibert Leave a Comment

Minister And His Wife Defend Scammer

A family loses their home to tax foreclosure and then one day a mysterious stranger comes to the door claiming to be the new owner and demands $5500 or he will throw them out the next day. The mysterious stranger is actually a violent ex-felon with connections to a real estate investment firm owned by a prison minister who counseled the scammer in prison and now the minister and his wife are defending the scammer.

Rob Wolchek from Fox2 in Detroit tries to get to the bottom of this:

Ex-Convict Accused of a Dirty ‘Deed’: MyFoxDETROIT.com

Filed Under: Michigan, Mortgage News Tagged With: Bill Hicks, Bonnie Straight, economic meltdown, financial crisis, foreclosure, foreclosure crisis, foreclosure defense, foreclosure fraud, foreclosure help, foreclosure rescue, foreclosure rescue scams, foreclosures, Housing Crisis, illegal foreclosures, Mel Straight, Mel Straight Ministries, Mortgage Crisis, mortgage fraud, mortgage help, mortgages, real estate fraud, Rob Wolchek, Victory Investment Solutions, William Matthews

Busted: BankAtlantic CEO Accused Of Real Estate Fraud

January 19, 2012 By Steve Dibert Leave a Comment

SEC charges Florida-based BankAtlantic CEO with real estate fraud

Andrew Scoggin, Housing Wire

BankAtlantic and its CEO Alan Levan have been accused of real estate fraud by the SEC

The Securities and Exchange Commission chargedBankAtlantic Bancorp (BBX: 3.10 +2.31%) and its chief executive Wednesday for allegedly misleading investors on defaulting loans in its real estate development portfolio.

The SEC said in a statement BankAtlantic and its CEO and Chairman Alan Levan hid the “deteriorating state” of portions of its land acquisition and development business in 2007. The company and Levan then tried to minimize losses on the books, the SEC said, by committing accounting fraud.

The Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based bank and Levan improperly recorded loans it tried to sell from the portfolio, according to the SEC. The agency filed its complaint in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

“This is exactly the type of information that is important to investors, and corporate executives who fail to make that required disclosure will face severe consequences,” Robert Khuzami, director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, said in a statement.

The SEC seeks to bar Levan from holding an executive position at any financial firm, as well as financial penalties against BankAtlantic.

The company’s stock fell sharply right before market close Wednesday to $3.03, or by 7.6%.

Gene Stearns, a long-time lawyer for BankAtlantic and Levan, said the company is not concerned about the merits of the SEC case, aside from any monetary costs and bad publicity.

“We all know the SEC is under enormous pressure to sue somebody, but it sure picked an odd defendant,” Stearns said.

The loans were for large tracts of land intended for single-family housing and condos, the SEC said. Borrowers could not meet loan obligations, and the SEC said BankAtlantic kept them current in some cases by extending the loan terms.

Woman regains vacant home after court fight

March 24, 2011 By Steve Dibert Leave a Comment

Steve Andrews, Tampa Tribune

After a costly, four-month ordeal, Danuta Brown regained the house and property taken out from under her.

When she walked into the Dover house on Raven Manor Drive on Wednesday, she wiped tears from her eyes. They weren’t tears of happiness – the four-bedroom, three-bath house was filthy.

“I can’t believe people would leave a house like this,” Brown said. “This is such a mess, I can’t believe it.”

Brown eventually won back her property after a company called Chateau Lan took possession of her vacant house, citing Florida’s adverse possession law. That law allows a person to take possession of abandoned property if he lives on it and pays taxes on it for seven years.

Though she was ultimately successful, Brown’s long trip through the legal system was costly and time-consuming, and ended with her cleaning up a mess created by someone she had never intended to have live in her house.

It’s a fight that’s become increasingly common as several companies try to use adverse possession claims to put people in homes they don’t own.

Chateau Lan’s Chris McDonald Sr., of Plant City, says he’s taken possession of about 20 houses in this manner. Records at the property appraiser’s office show Chateau Lan has laid claim to a dozen properties through adverse possession.

In December, McDonald somehow gained access to Brown’s property, which was going through foreclosure and which she was trying to sell. He placed 41-year-old Yvette Swain and her family in the 6-year-old house without Brown’s knowledge or permission.

According to McDonald, Chateau Lan collects money to maintain the properties and pay property taxes.

“For the most part after neighbors see the quality of the clientele we put in the neighborhood, they say, ‘I’m so glad you are here.’”

In early December, Brown discovered Swain and her family living on her property and the locks had been changed. She called the sheriff’s office.

Brown hired real estate lawyer Mark Aubin.

Michigan Attorney Accused of Renting Houses He Didn’t Own

November 26, 2010 By Steve Dibert Leave a Comment

Daniel Pepper, Allegan County News

Allegan attorney John Watts has been ordered to stand trial on all the charges against him.

Watts, 65, was in Allegan County District Court Friday, Nov. 19, for a preliminary hearing before visiting Judge Richard A. Santoni.

Watts, of Cheshire Township, was arrested in May and charged with five felonies in three cases including two counts of false pretenses and one count each of embezzlement between $1,000 and $20,000, unlawfully driving away a motor vehicle and passing false title. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

At the hearing Friday, Santoni heard testimony on one of the false pretense charges.

Police and prosecutors allege that in that case, Watts rented a home in Martin that didn’t belong to him and tried to collect rental income from it.

The owner of the home, Donald Tobin, testified at the hearing that he’d owned the home in 2006 with his wife at the time and that they had been living in it. Tobin said he’d decided to let it go into foreclosure as “a business decision” and moved his family to Florida. He said they’d returned late in the fall or early winter, intending to get some things left in the house and stay there while visiting family.

“My key didn’t work,” Tobin said. “I looked over and saw a car there. I knocked on the door and a lady answered the door.”

He said he called police and the woman left.

When asked by Van Buren County assistant prosecutor Michael Bedford whether he knew Watts, Tobin said he’d never met him and hadn’t given him permission to rent the house.

On cross examination, he said it was possible his family didn’t intend to stay at the home, because the house didn’t have utilities on, but were just there to pick up property.

Violent Ex-Felon With Ties To Prison Minister’s Foreclosure Rescue Company Scams $5500 From Homeowner

Minister And His Wife Defend Scammer

Busted: BankAtlantic CEO Accused Of Real Estate Fraud

SEC charges Florida-based BankAtlantic CEO with real estate fraud

Woman regains vacant home after court fight

Michigan Attorney Accused of Renting Houses He Didn’t Own

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