More charges filed in Crisp & Cole case
| Sunday, Jan 24 2010 10:54 PM
Last Updated Monday, Jan 25 2010 12:58 PM
Sept. 28, 2009: Jerald Teixeira pleads guilty to felony charges of wire fraud and aiding and abetting in federal court in Fresno. Teixeira, a former loan officer at Crisp & Cole's mortgage arm, Tower Lending, tells The Californian: "I'm looking forward to manning up, to standing up and doing what's right -- doing what maybe some others in this are not willing to do." Teixeira's plea agreement says he will cooperate with authorities.
Teixeira could face up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. He is currently scheduled for sentencing in March.
Jan. 8: Kevin and Leslie Sluga plead guilty to felony charges of wire fraud and aiding and abetting. Their daughter, Jennifer Crisp, is married to David Crisp, the former real estate salesman who co-owned Crisp & Cole Real Estate with former broker Carl Cole.
Kevin Sluga, a certified public accountant who owns California Business Solutions, admits to having created fraudulent CPA letters for loan applications in multiple Crisp & Cole-related transactions. Leslie Sluga admits to submitting false employment, income and residency information in several mortgage applications.
The Slugas' plea agreement is conditioned on a guilty plea from daughter Megan Balod. The Slugas also agree to cooperate with authorities. They each face up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The couple has a sentencing hearing scheduled for July.
Jan. 21: Federal prosecutors file charges against Megan Balod in Fresno district court, listing four counts of felony wire fraud and aiding and abetting. A related document remains under federal seal.
A fourth person has been charged by federal prosecutors in the ongoing Crisp & Cole Real Estate investigation, court documents show.
Megan Balod, 31, was charged late last week by the U.S. Attorney's office in Fresno on four counts of wire fraud and aiding and abetting.
Balod is the sister-in-law of David Crisp, the former real estate agent whose partnership with former broker Carl Cole launched a dazzling and ultimately scandalous chapter in the local industry after FBI agents raided 13 sites linked to the once high-profile firm in fall 2007.
Balod's parents, Kevin and Leslie Sluga, pleaded guilty to similar charges earlier this month. The Slugas' plea agreements were constructed as a "package offer" conditioned on a guilty plea from Balod. The public court filings concerning Balod do not yet include a plea agreement; one filing was sealed and not accessible Sunday.
Balod could not be reached Sunday evening for comment.
In September, former employee Jerald Teixeira became the first Crisp & Cole associate to rack up criminal charges when he pleaded guilty to wire fraud and aiding and abetting.
Court filings show the federal charges against Teixeira, the Slugas and Balod are related cases in a larger mortgage fraud scheme.
Charges against Balod echo some against her parents and Teixeira: Prosecutors say she deliberately doctored numerous mortgage applications with phony employment, income and residency information.
Between May 2004 and May 2006, Balod bought 11 properties valued at about $5.4 million "at the direction of" one of the owners of Crisp & Cole Real Estate, prosecutors say. Her actions defrauded lenders of more than $850,000 in all.
In almost every loan application, Balod knowingly provided false employment or income information, failed to disclose other outstanding mortgages or said she planned to live in the home when she did not, prosecutors say.
Two examples of phony jobs include a "team coordinator" position at Crisp & Cole Real Estate and "chief operations officer" at her father's accounting company, California Business Solutions, the court filings show.
Details of only a few of the 11 properties are listed in the charging documents:
12104 Crown Crest Drive, which Balod borrowed about $761,000 against in early 2005;
11313 Covent Gardens Drive, which she borrowed about $920,000 against in early 2006; and
10725 Vista Bonita Drive, which she borrowed some $545,000 against in early 2006.
All three properties were eventually foreclosed on, property records show.
As Crisp & Cole's operations unravelled starting in 2007, more than 140 troubled properties carrying bad loans totaling more than $83 million wound up foreclosed on or sold through short sales, according to property records tracked by The Californian for more than a year. Most were homes in metro Bakersfield.
State regulators have since revoked the real estate licenses of David Crisp and Carl Cole. Numerous civil lawsuits are active against them, but no criminal charges have yet been filed against Crisp or Cole in the federal case.
