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Two ex-Crisp & Cole employees get deals
| Wednesday, Jul 2 2008 10:58 AM
Last Updated: Wednesday, Jul 2 2008 4:28 PM
Two former Crisp & Cole Real Estate staffers accused of fraud by state regulators have made deals to avoid an administrative hearing set for later this month, according to lawyers for the pair.
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One-time Crisp & Cole sales agent Jill Louise Pinheiro will keep her license, but remain on probation for two years with the Department of Real Estate, according to her lawyer, Thomas S. Clark.
Sneha Mohammadi, who was a sales agent and broker for Crisp & Cole, will surrender her license, Fresno attorney Carl Faller said.
“She’s not planning on working in the field anymore,” Faller said. “And she just decided, rather than go through the administrative hearing, that she was just willing to make the agreement and surrender her license and go on with other parts of her life.”
Pinheiro has consistently denied Department of Real Estate allegations that she told a mortgage representative during a phone conversation that Leslie Sluga, Crisp’s mother-in-law, was employed at the real estate agency, Clark writes.
Under the terms of her probation, Pinheiro’s license will remain in good standing, Clark said. Any violations of laws, rules or regulations could result in a 30-day suspension of her license.
Pinheiro hopes to continue working in real estate, Clark said.
“All this publicity kind of left her up in the air,” he said.
The Department of Real Estate cannot verify the attorneys’ details of the reported deals, spokesman Tom Pool said.
Any settlement agreement would have to be signed by the agency’s head, Real Estate Commissioner Jeff Davi, before it would be final, he said.
A third licensed Crisp & Cole employee, Robinson Nguyen, was also named in the 25-page regulatory complaint filed Sept. 10.
Nguyen, along with Crisp & Cole principals David Crisp and Carl Cole, are scheduled to face those allegations — which include charges the group deceived lenders to receive home mortgages — at an administrative hearing to begin July 28.
A case settlement conference held in Los Angeles June 20 failed to resolve the charges.
The now-defunct real estate agency is also the subject of an FBI investigation. No charges have been filed in that case.
Crisp & Cole employees, associates and family members are linked to at least $71.6 million worth of defaulted and foreclosed loans, according to an ongoing Californian tally.
Most of the loans were taken out on homes in the Bakersfield area.
At least 104 properties connected to Crisp & Cole had foreclosed on as of Monday, the tally shows.