Murrieta / Temecula scam — new article

[AK]

This is some amazing stuff … it is alleged that a relative of one of the principals tried to warn the “investors” … but no one listened and she ended up getting sued for slander instead.

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/02/11/news/californian/22_36_292_10_07.txt

Investors’ legal battles span 5 years
By: CHRIS BAGLEY – Staff Writer

MURRIETA —- Long before clients accused them of multimillion-dollar real estate fraud, defendants in a Riverside County lawsuit had locked horns with family members, investment managers, employees and financial authorities, according to legal documents filed in three states.

At least 19 plaintiffs have signed on to the current suit in an effort, they say, to save their credit ratings and stave off eviction by mortgage lenders. The suit alleges that Hendrix Montecastro, Maurice McLeod and James Duncan, all of Murrieta, duped them into buying dozens of overpriced houses and used excess cash from the corresponding home loans to buy investments that existed only on paper. …

Here’s where it gets good:

Helen Montecastro recruited several of the investors at Rancho Springs, where she and her sister Linda Opina worked as nurses, plaintiffs said. Opina told several of them that the Montecastros were “scamming you,” according to a slander lawsuit that Stonewood filed in March 2005 against Opina and her husband, Rick. The Opinas settled the suit out of court.

“They were trying to prevent us from joining,” said Steve Lanuzo, one of the plaintiffs in the current suit. “They were trying to do us a favor, but we didn’t know this at the time.” …

[AK]

Another article, this one from PE.com. New lawsuit by a Rialto couple.

Investors file federal fraud lawsuit
http://www.pe.com/business/local/stories/PE_Biz_D_fraud13.2150a76.html

Mostly stuff we’ve heard already … here’s the new stuff:

(snip)
The plaintiffs in the latest suit, Anna Richter and Deborah Weber, said they were persuaded by the defendants to extract all the equity from their homes, which was subsequently wired to accounts that the defendants controlled. They never received the promised returns, the suit said. …

Richter said in an interview Monday that she became an investor with Pacific Wealth in April on the advice of a friend from church. Richter, 39, who until recently was a senior chemist at California Steel Industries in Fontana, said she and her husband, Mark, 44, a senior inspector for California Steel, hoped their investment profits would enable Mark to go into the ministry.

Richter said she borrowed $187,000 on their house in Rialto that Pacific Wealth used to help her and her husband buy three more homes. In addition, she said, Pacific Wealth opened credit cards in her name on which she borrowed $76,000 in cash. She said she invested that and another $15,000 from her 401(k) for a six-month investment that Pacific Wealth was touting in foreign currency.
(snip)

That “foreign currency” is the Iraqi dinar …

[sdcellar]

I happened to notice on foreclosure.com that Hendrix Montecastro has a NOD for a condo out 4S Ranch way. Looks to me like this scam might not just be limited to the Murrieta and Temecula areas…

[sdrealtor]

He actually put $150K down on that one. I guess he figured he deserved to buy a $1.4M pimp palace after all his handiwork up the road.

[Steve Beebo]

I have seen a list of several hundred properties involved in the case. There are a couple of loans in SD County, a couple in Orange County, and a couple in Arizona, but 98% of the properties in this list are in Murrieta, Temecula, or areas very nearby, like Wildomar and Lake Elsinore.

[no_such_reality]

The only thing I really want to know is where the actual price of the properties “bought” under this scam actually end up.

50% or more below their fraud buy price seems reasonable given,

1. the last sale was fraudlent and potentially envolved 10-20% cash back or a known ability to future fraud it for 10-20% cash on a refi.
2. the only reason the home sold at all was it was involved in the scam.
3. some neighborhood ‘blocks’ have as many as five homes involved in the scam. Literally, one scam price inflates the next scam price.

If you look to Murrieta, the condos in Ladera Ranch, parts of San Marcos and potentially 4S ranch the story is the same, fraudulent sales setting the comp price for more fraudulent sales.

So if fair market value is approaching 50% or so, what’s the REO going to go for if they have to clear several hundred out in a few cities?

[farbet]

The appraisers involved in bringing in high appraisals in a
declining price market should loose their license,along with the fraudster realtors.

[Anonymous]

You want to learn more about this scam or are a victim please check out this site for the latest details.
http://www.coreclient.110mb.com

[Anonymous]

These folks are fighting back. Good for them I hope they stick it to the fraudsters. The fraudsters need to go to jail for a long time. http://www.coreclient.110mb.com

[BuyerWillEPB]

Hey Core!

You ol’ flipper rascal! Long time no smell.

How’s your real estate scam / get rich quick scheme going these days?

[temeculaguy]

He’s got links on his site to some specific threads here and it looks like he’s spamming all the dead horse threads. I can’t figure out why, nothing we can do to help. If he really wants to fight back he needs to start making some dogfighting allegations against them. They do have pictures on their sie of the swindlers, nothing like what I expected and a few looked like they just got out of jail so going back shouldn’t be any big deal. I know looks can be decieving but I wouldn’t trust some of them with my car when I valet park, let alone my money.

[Anonymous]

I call BS on these ‘victims’ – Is it not possible to pay for seminary on less than $187,000? Or maybe that’s not what they meant by ‘ministry’ . . .

[Anonymous]

Yo buttbuyerwillepb,
Learn the facts, I did not purchase any props…I was involved in securities that I never received….Gave $$$ and got nothing in returned….So you want to be sarcastic throw stones do your due diligence (as I have heard from you guys) before you start judging me, look in the mirror.

r/
cORE

[Anonymous]

Yo buttbuyerwillepb,
Learn the facts, I did not purchase any props…I was involved in securities that I never received….Gave $$$ and got nothing in returned….So you want to be sarcastic throw stones do your due diligence (as I have heard from you guys) before you start judging me, look in the mirror.

r/
cORE

[Anonymous]

Yo buttbuyerwillepb,
Learn the facts, I did not purchase any props…I was involved in securities that I never received….Gave $$$ and got nothing in returned….So you want to be sarcastic throw stones do your due diligence (as I have heard from you guys) before you start judging me, look in the mirror.

r/
cORE

[Author]

Posts