Real estate agent, father charged in mortgage fraud case
| Thursday, Mar 04 2010 07:51 PM
Last Updated Thursday, Mar 04 2010 07:57 PM
Authorities allege fraudulent loans and kickbacks were made on the following properties
* 208 Buxton Hill Drive - sold to Augustine Ramirez Dec. 28, 2006; foreclosed Sept. 6, 2007; $100,000 kickback.
* 10304 Craigton Court - sold to Augustine Ramirez Nov. 22, 2006; foreclosed Aug. 31, 2007; $100,000 kickback.
* 12610 Crown Crest Drive - sold to Augustine Ramirez Dec. 28. 2006; foreclosed March 19, 2008; $100,000 kickback.
* 7531 Lindsay Road - sold to Augustine Ramirez Jan. 12, 2007; foreclosed Nov. 5, 2007; $70,000 kickback.
* 13504 San Simeon Ave. - sold to Augustine Ramirez Dec. 5, 2006; foreclosed Jan. 3, 2008; $65,000 kickback.
Source: Criminal complaint filed in Kern County Superior Court
Images
Bakersfield Police handout photograph of Guadalupe Ramirez.
Bakersfield Police handout photographof Augustine Ramirez.
A Bakersfield real estate agent and her father have been charged in a mortgage fraud scheme, accused of getting kickbacks from $4.1 million in fraudulent mortgage loans that almost immediately went into default, according to legal filings.
Guadalupe Ramirez, 31, and her father, Augustine Ramirez, 60, were not in custody Thursday but were each wanted on $1 million arrest warrants, according to the Bakersfield Police Department.
Four years ago, the father purchased five homes between November 2006 and January 2007 and each time indicated he planned to live in the place, according to the criminal complaint filed Tuesday in Kern County Superior Court. He is identified as both Augustine and Agustin in court documents, and on some property records he is listed as Agustin.
Owner-occupied homes are eligible for more favorable loan terms.
The pair also failed to disclose to lenders large cash "kickbacks" Augustine Ramirez obtained from sellers via inflated appraisals, according to the allegations listed in the complaint.
"The sellers didn't benefit in any way financially," said Bakersfield Police Detective Frank Wooldridge. "They were innocent private parties just trying to sell their homes. I'm not sure what they were told to get them to make the payments, that it was for a new roof or repairs or something, who knows? These weren't run-of-the-mill houses. They were nicer homes, but the sellers were victims, too, along with the lenders who made loans based on inflated -- grossly inflated -- appraisals. And these loans defaulted almost immediately. It seems he never made a single payment on any of them."
Police had been looking into the allegations since June 2007, when real estate professionals alerted them to homes that were being appraised at far above the market value of comparable homes in the same neighborhoods, Wooldridge said.
One of the five houses authorities looked at, 12610 Crown Crest Drive, is part of a separate federal mortgage fraud investigation into now defunct Bakersfield real estate firm Crisp, Cole and Associates, better known locally as Crisp & Cole. The firm's co-owner, Carl Cole, and his wife, Rebecca, bought the home in September 2004 for $361,500, according to county records. They sold it to Crisp & Cole three months later for $465,000, pocketing more than $100,000 in profits. That was Dec. 10, 2004. The company sold the house the same day to Crisp and Cole employee Justin Eddleman for $668,000.
Augustine Ramirez purchased it Dec. 28, 2006 for $949,000.
His daughter once worked for the former Touchstone Real Estate, which is now Watson Touchstone ERA. She is no longer employed there. Company officials did not respond to a request for an interview.
The California Department of Real Estate says Guadalupe Ramirez's real estate license, first issued in 2002, expires later this month. No current employer is listed for her.
The loans were in the name of Augustine Ramirez, but both father and daughter were present when loan applications were submitted, and both received at least $384,940 in kickback payments, the police reports filed in court allege.
The pair face two counts of conspiring to commit a crime, five counts of grand theft of property and eight counts of money laundering, all felonies. A conviction on all charges could mean up to 19 years in prison.
Deputy District Attorney Gordon Isen, head of the Kern County District Attorney's Office's new mortgage fraud unit, declined to comment on the case or on whether any related criminal charges will be filed in the near future. The conspiracy counts mentioned "unknown" co-conspirators in the court documents.
Isen did say, however, that his office will be pursuing mortgage fraud cases in Bakersfield "aggressively."
Current and former appraisers who evaluated the five properties cited in the complaint were sanctioned by the state Office of Real Estate Appraisers for "errors and omissions" in their work.
The license of Eli Donati, who appraised four of the homes, was revoked effective November of last year. Donati could not be reached for comment.
In 2008, Jenny Recondo of All Kern Appraisals was ordered to pay a $1,500 fine and undergo 30 hours of state-approved training. A home on Lindsay Road that Augustine Ramirez purchased in 2007 was mentioned in the reprimand.
No one responded to a message that was left at the telephone number the state lists on Recondo's appraiser's license. Recondo did not answer an e-mail sent to her at All Kern Appraisals.
The Ramirezes could not be reached for comment. Police asked anyone with information about the Ramirezes' whereabouts to call Bakersfield Police Detective Frank Wooldridge at 326-3947.
-- Staff writer Gretchen Wenner contributed to this report.
