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Wire tap, sales deal testimony emerge at Crisp & Cole hearing
| Monday, Aug 4 2008 7:08 PM
Last Updated: Wednesday, Aug 6 2008 7:55 AM
The state Department of Real Estate wrapped up its arguments Monday in the mortgage fraud proceedings against David Crisp and Carl Cole, but not before fleshing out some details in the case.
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David Crisp waits for the start of his hearing on July 28.
Carl Cole waits for the start of his hearing on July 28.
It’s unclear if witnesses for Crisp, who’s defending himself, will start off Tuesday’s proceedings, or if Cole’s attorney, Glenn Kottcamp, will start the day. The state could later introduce rebuttal testimony.
Crisp and Cole could lose their real estate licenses if the state Department of Real Estate proves they committed mortgage fraud involving 13 properties.
Former Tower Lending employee Jayson Costa testified that both Cole and Crisp knew he wasn’t a licensed broker.
He was encouraged to get his license, but during the boom, “there was such a backlog at the state to get people licenses,” he said.
Costa now lives in Lompoc and works at a Dodge dealership.
Investigators first discovered Costa was unlicensed while he was a broker at American Star Financial Group. That’s when he started doing loans for Crisp and Cole, he said.
“I did all their loans. When they opened up a loan shop, I was their guy,” Costa said.
He testified Crisp picked him to do their loans, and Cole chose Christopher Stoball.
During a hearing recess, Costa said he missed the real estate business.
“I know Carl and David are getting in trouble. A lot of other people benefited from this boom. We just made more money than everybody else,” Costa said.
He believes lenders made money too readily available to unqualified applicants.
Joe Carrillo, a senior deputy commissioner with the Department of Real Estate, testified he wore a wire for the FBI while interviewing Cole at a real estate office in May 2007.
Former Crisp, Cole & Associates employee Janie “JJ” Stockton received at least $20,000 from Crisp in exchange for using her name as the purchaser on loan documents, Carrillo said.
“She signed everything that David Crisp gave her to sign,” Carrillo testified.
During cross-examination, Crisp asked Carrillo how the state investigators who complained about Crisp, Cole & Associates. Carrillo said Gary Crabtree brought discrepancies in the values of properties to the department’s attention.
Crabtree, an appraiser, said Monday afternoon in a phone interview that he wrote a letter about “transactional anomalies” to the Bakersfield Association of Realtors’ executive committee. The association’s legal counsel reviewed the letter, and advised Crabtree to send it to state regulators.
Carrillo testified that Crisp and former employee Sneha Mohammadi bought a home at 11504 Haydock Court. At first, Mohammadi said the home would be her primary residence.
But then an hour later, Carrillo recounted that she changed her story. She and Crisp would pay half the mortgage and split the profits equally.
But Mohammadi told Carrillo she misunderstood the arrangement with Crisp, who never intended to pay the mortgage, the investigator said.
Mohammadi then sold the home to Leslie Sluga, Crisp’s mother-in-law, and gave Crisp, Cole & Associates a check for $517,795, Carrillo said.
Luke Martin of the Department of Real Estate testified that when he interviewed Crisp in 2005, the real estate salesman brought magazine articles that detailed his success — the private jet, the designer clothes, the fancy cars.
Kottcamp objected to the questioning, but the department’s attorney said after the hearing it was relevant.
“I want the judge to see exactly what kind of image (these) guys were creating, how costly it was,” said Michael Rich.
The hearing will resume at 9 a.m. Tuesday.
The public may attend proceedings, held in the basement of the Masonic Temple, 1920 18th St.