SHARKS: Weber County Realtors Charged With Fraud

In the real estate business, there are many excellent and morally upstanding agents.  However, there are always a few exceptions that seem to play too close to the foul line.  As our local newspaper reports, a couple notorious out-of-bounds market participants will finally have their day in court.  Here is the story from the Standard Examiner:

Six real estate figures from Weber and Davis counties have been charged with felonies alleging fraud in the sales of homes along the Wasatch Front.  The defendants conspired in tacking on bogus fees to transactions involving 13 homes from 2007 to 2010, according to the allegations.

“Defendants deceived and defrauded lenders, sellers and buyers who believed fraudulent, fictitious or invalid fees, costs and liens associated with the subject properties had to be cleared in order for the sale to close,” read the charging documents. 

Charged with multiple counts of second- and third-degree felony communications fraud and engaging in a pattern of unlawful activity, a second-degree felony, were...(click here to read the names)

Many of us in the business, including myself, wonder what took so long.  When I got in the business, I had my own run in with one of these folks who masqueraded at the time as a short sale "specialist".  I bought a short sale property this person had worked on.  Unfortunately, I got more than just the home.  The owner of the property wouldn't move out after I closed.  Why?  Well, they had been promised by the "specialist" that they could stay there, payment free of course, until a new home was found for them...even if the home they were living in closed.  Obviously, that was a bogus promise and I had to politely convince them to leave.

I know many investors who were wooed by the siren song of big payouts and easy money by this "specialist".  Of course, these folks ended up with broken credit or empty bank accounts.  Here is one horrifying example of this so-called specialist's track record.

Now that the word is out, I am sure more embarrassed folks will come forward with stories of their own losses and misery at the hands of an unseemly individual who poured honey in their ears.