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Crisp relative's homes in default
| Friday, Feb 15 2008 9:40 PM
Last Updated: Friday, Feb 15 2008 9:42 PM
The mother-in-law of Realtor David Crisp, Leslie Sluga, recently had two homes enter default, property records show.
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The delinquent loans are a first for Sluga, although scores of defaults and foreclosures have touched other family members of the former Crisp & Cole Real Estate company's staff and business associates over the past year.
A call to Sluga's home number was not answered early Friday evening.
Both defaulted homes, at 11504 Haydock Court and 800 Astoria Park Drive, were named in a state regulators' complaint last fall alleging multiple counts of mortgage fraud by Crisp & Cole. Sluga took out loans totaling more than $2 million against the two houses, both located in the southwest, records show.
The Haydock Court property had been "flipped" through company players, the California Department of Real Estate's September complaint alleged, with one staffer getting paid to pose as an owner before "selling" the home to Sluga for $1.7 million in April 2006.
Sluga's $1.3 million first loan on the Haydock property defaulted late last month, county property records indicate.
A second loan for about $400,000 could be a total loss for the lender, a typical outcome for delinquent "piggyback" mortgages in the current market.
The Astoria Park property carried a first loan of almost $300,000 and a second of about $75,000.
The department's complaint alleged Sluga and her daughter, Jennifer Crisp, were allowed by Crisp & Cole to report false employment information on loan documents.
The women reported nonexistent positions at Crisp & Cole and the accounting business owned by Sluga's husband, state regulators allege. Neither woman is licensed by the real estate department, which means the complaint -- currently being processed -- will have no impact on them regardless of its ultimate outcome.
Two days after the state complaint was filed, FBI and federal tax agents raided 13 sites around Bakersfield related to Crisp & Cole. That investigation is ongoing. No charges have been filed.
Crisp and his former business partner, broker Carl Cole, have left a string of at least 107 troubled properties carrying more than $66.6 million in loans in the wake of their defunct company's operations, according to an ongoing Californian tally.
As of Friday, at least 80 of those have foreclosed, the Californian's research found.