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Northern Virginia Invites Organized Crime
By Greg L | 6 July 2008 | Virginia Politics, Crime | 32 Comments
Joe over at NOVATownHall continues to lay out the evidence of a massive zoning enforcement problem in the Sterling area of Loudoun County while advancing an interesting theory that explains some of the observed behavior. Based on what we’ve seen in this area, I’d suspect the behavior and this possible situation that would explain it is hardly limited to Sterling.
There is another specific case going on right now which may be far more revealing than either of these, because evidence is piling up about a home purchasing mortgage-and-refinancing scam which might explain much of what has been happening in our area. It appears some of these boarding houses have been the result of a loophole in lending practices, in which someone can buy multiple residences, sell and refinance them several times over, then leave with a wad of cash and sticking the lending institutions with the bill. In the lag time between purchase and physical foreclosure, the residence is rented out to illegal boarders, and the rent money kept as additional profit. Banks, and eventually taxpayers, are left to pick up the final bills.
I’d add that there must be some sort of black market for used applicances and building materials, since far more often than not a previously overcrowded foreclosed single family residence will be stripped of everything of value by the most recent tenants. Applicances, fixtures, and as Joe notes even garage doors seem to disappear from these properties. Someone has to be buying this stuff, which is stolen property after all.
This is a pretty low-risk crime for these folks to pull off, since the banks that end up owning these properties don’t know who the previous tenants were and don’t have an inventory of the applicances or other property that was stolen. Solving these crimes would require the assistance of the previous property owners which aren’t likely to feel much inspiration to help out the bank that just foreclosed on their property. Going after the folks fencing this stolen property is difficult, since just proving that the property they sold was stolen would be very hard to do. When the chain of custody for property gets this opaque, figuring out what property was stolen and who stole it is a real challenge.
It’s just another disturbing facet of the residential overcrowding problem that is very difficult to effectively address short of ensuring that residential overcrowding and real estate fraud doesn’t happen in the first place. If local governments simply did a better job of stopping overcrowding, not only would it rescue communities from tremendous spot-blight, but it would shut down a wide-ranging criminal enterprise that must certainly be responsible for the trafficking of millions, if not billions of dollars worth of stolen property every year. In the meantime, we have a massive stolen property market in Northern Virginia and law enforcement hasn’t been able to address it in any way.
Such a juicy invitation for organized crime in Nothern Virginia hasn’t been offered in decades. The easier it is for organized crime to safely operate a wide-ranging criminal operation with enormous profit potential, the more likely it is they’ll come and displace the small-time crooks, extending their geographic reach and insinuating themselves into an ever-wider proportion of the criminal activity that goes on.
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It’s just the way things are done, south of the border. Where’s your appreciation for “diversity”?
Someone tell me what happened here? This property was foreclosed on, yet the previous owner seems to have gotten it as a gift? Did they get a home equity loan, take the money and split?
(This information is from the PWC Assessor’s office, and tihis is not the only one I’ve seen with this unusual pattern of a house being given as a gift with a foreclosure a year or two later):
200711260127146 26766 $341,535 11/26/2007 RESIDENTIAL FUNDING COMPANY LLC XC
200605020067710 26766 $0 5/2/2006 ALEMAN FAUSTO BERNARDO & NORMA SUYAPA XG
200412100209076 26766 $302,000 12/10/2004 FUNES JUAN CARLOS ETAL
200310010179375 26766 $245,000 10/1/2003 ROSALES JUAN J & MARIA E ROSALES SURV
Oh yea, NOVEC says the power was turned off in that property back in August, 2007. Wonder when the home equity loan was made.
Oddly enough, all of the appliances are in this property, nothing appears to have been stolen, it’s just in VERY poor condition.
“I’d add that there must be some sort of black market for used applicances and building materials”
I see a lot of that sort of stuff being given away free on Craigslist.
years ago my parents were getting pretty upset about the electricity being too high one summer, like 300.00 higher. well we had some mexican immigrants next door who got their power turned off (they didnt pay the bill) so they helped themselves to ours. they ran an extension cord along a tree and then plugged it into the socket on one of our security lights. since the houses were pretty close together it was camoflaged pretty good.
it was pretty funny how he was caught. We cut the cord one evening and let it hang over on our side of the fence. when the neighbor came to check dad punched him in the face as he was waiting (the guy actually was actually caught on our roof). He never did that anymore. probably not the best way to handle the situation, but I bet he’ll never steal electricity again. he never said a word to the authorities, I remember dad saying that’s how they roll down there in mexico..stealing anything that’s not tied down.
Astute observations, Greg. Neither the likelihood of the property being fenced nor organized crime potential occurred to me.
Wonder what would have happened if Chicko’s Dad had done it the ‘right’ way by calling the local police department? Ya gotta love a good law and order story straight from the neighborhood. Yeah buddy! Bet he at least thought about it before doing it again. Besides, what could he say to the authorities?
He got what he should have gotten………….a painful lesson in ‘if it’s not your don’t touch it’.
Looks like the Loudoun County Zoning Administration, by turning a blind eye to the overcrowding issue, are inviting the Mob to venture into new business lines.–an inspired entrepreneurship straight out of Chicago.
There is a large mcmansion on the dead end part of king george missing garage doors. I wondered why. Now I know.
I watched people hauling out appliances from a house in my neighborhood. I knew what was happening and I did nothing. I saw Lafayette do this battle first hand, last summer. The police cannot do anything about it since the people stealing it are listed as the renters. All you need is a piece of mail to prove it.
I figured the owner of the house had burdened me with bad neighbors for the better part of the year, she could guard her own appliances. It might make up for the many times I was awakened to the sirens and flashing lights down there and all the months I had had to look at their unmowed yard.
I guess I am just a bad person. The house is in foreclosure now, it appears.
I’m trying to understand what’s wrong with a company wanting to make a loan out to a person as illustrated in the story. I mean, if the company performs a risk analysis and the numbers add up - why shouldn’t the company make that loan? Hell, even if the numbers don’t add up (story above) they can still make the loan if they want to as it’s there money and they can do so as they please with it.
In the above case, I don’t think the loanee (again, as depicted above) did anything wrong (which leads me to believe why the poster calls it a loophole). Does he benefit from chaining loans? Yup. But, if a bank makes the loan it’s because they believe they will make money off of it on the assumption of a risk. In this case, the risk is very high but they still made the loan. So, let the company fail and don’t use taxpayer monies to prop it up.
I fail to see how this is an issue.
This story is in the Examiner today>
http://www.examiner.com/a-1475386~Ending_government_sponsored_blight.html
Excellent expose’ of another impact of illegal immigration. Isn’t everyone (those, at least, that aren’t handsomely profiting from illegals or are so liberally insane they hug illegals regardless) fed up with things like this and the presence of illegal aliens in our communities?
Hammer away at your local politicians all the way up to those on the federal level and demand a stop to illegal immigration and full enforcement of our existing laws.
kind of off topic but I just got back from the 7-11 on rt.1 next to Ricos Tacos. For the past few weeks it seems to have morphed into a place to hire illegal workers for moving companies. There were so many moving trucks (Pullen Moving) that I could hardly park. The past few weeks it’s been a parking lot for moving companies like Pullen and another (didn’t get the name of it, white trucks with green letters, Biliken or something like that). However, the day labors no longer stand at the 7-11 (at least not all of them) they all sit on the wall next to Ricos Tacos near a no trespassing sign.
Anchor Baby:
Anything that aids & abets illegal aliens, rewards illegal immigration, enables illegal aliens to remain and operate here and embed themselves in our communites…is an issue.
Where’s the problem, Greg? These god-sends (and McCain’s “gods children”) contribute soooooooo mucho to our nation , economy, and national values that we should be celebrating the ‘diversity’ and culture these third-worlders bring in. Besides, we should be adapting to them not asking they assimilate and adapt to our culture and laws. Besides, what could go wrong? Mexico is a perfectly democratic, orderly, shining example of a country where peace, prosperity and the rule of law works. We should be more like them, as the invaders here demand.
We have enough of our own jerks breaking the law and taking advantage of people. But you can bet they are learning new tricks from the illegals,that were born and bred on this stuff from day one.
They did not have to be this way but they find it much easier to flant the law.Those who work with them are doing so to pad their own pocketbooks.
There has to be a crack down on all of this activity.
Wonder what type of loans they are getting? Must be Conventional. I know about 10 years ago a family bought a house in Dale City,under an FHA and there are requirements that one who buys FHA must live in house. Two days after settlement 3/4 guys moved in and for a week it was nothing but parties.A neighbor called agent and said they thought a family bought the house.?Well the neighbor called the Lender who was a local lender and the Lender went out to the house to check. Next thing you know the tenants were gone and the owners no longer had a loan ,so that was the end of that.
Lenders were very protective of the Loans. Today who knows what goes on.
BUT WE HAVE TO GET RID OF THE SHIM-SHAM WAYS AND GET BACK TO THE GOOD OLD AMERICAN WAYS.
AMEN, Free Citizen!
Two words come to mind here:
“Money Laundering”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortgage_fraud
Also, from http://www.fbi.gov/page2/dec05/operationquickflip121405.htm
* Typical fraud schemes:
o Backward Applications: After identifying a property to purchase, a borrower customizes his/her income to meet the loan criteria.
o Air Loans: These are non-existent property loans where there is usually no collateral. An example would be where a broker invents borrowers and properties, establishes accounts for payments and maintains custodial accounts for escrows. They may set up an office with a bank of telephones, each one used as the employer, appraiser, credit agency, etc. for verification purposes.
o Silent Seconds: The buyer of a property borrows the down payment from the seller through the issuance of a non-disclosed second mortgage. The primary lender believes the borrower has invested his own money in the down payment, when in fact, it is borrowed. The second mortgage may not be recorded to further conceal its status from the primary lender.
o Nominee Loans: The identity of the borrower is concealed through the use of a nominee who allows the borrower to use the nominee’s name and credit history to apply for a loan.
o Property Flips: Property is purchased, falsely appraised at a higher value, and then quickly sold. What makes property flipping illegal is that the appraisal information is fraudulent. The schemes typically involve fraudulent appraisals, doctored loan documents, and inflation of the buyer’s income.
o Foreclosure schemes: The subject identifies homeowners who are at risk of defaulting on loans or whose houses are already in foreclosure. Subjects mislead the homeowners into believing that they can save their homes in exchange for a transfer of the deed and up-front fees. The subject profits from these schemes by re-mortgaging the property or pocketing the fees paid by the homeowner.
o Equity Skimming: An investor may use a straw buyer, false income documents, and false credit reports to obtain a mortgage loan in the straw buyer’s name. Subsequent to closing, the straw buyer signs the property over to the investor in a quit claim deed which relinquishes all rights to the property and provides no guaranty to title. The investor does not make any mortgage payments and rents the property until foreclosure takes place several months later.
http://www.fbi.gov/publications/fraud/mortgage_fraud07.htm
“Data from law enforcement and industry sources were compared and mapped to determine which states were most affected by mortgage fraud during 2007 and indicated that the top 10 mortgage fraud states for 2007 were Florida, Georgia, Michigan, California, Illinois, Ohio, Texas, New York, Colorado, and Minnesota. Other states significantly affected by mortgage fraud according to available sources included Arizona, Maryland, Utah, Nevada, Missouri, Indiana, Tennessee, ***Virginia***, New Jersey, and Connecticut.”
“HUD-OIG’s top 10 mortgage fraud states based on investigations opened during FY 2007 included Ohio, Maryland, Illinois, Georgia, Texas, ***Virginia***, California, North Carolina, Michigan, and New York, respectively.”
“Mortgage Asset Research Institute
During 2007, Florida, Nevada, Michigan, California, Utah, Georgia, ***Virginia***, Illinois, New York, and Minnesota were MARI’s top 10 states for reports of mortgage fraud across all SF loan types (see figure 12).”
“Currently the FBI has mortgage fraud working groups or task forces in 32 field divisions, including Anchorage, Albuquerque, Atlanta, Buffalo, Charlotte, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit, Dallas, Denver, El Paso, Honolulu, Houston, Indianapolis, Jackson, Kansas City, Louisville, Memphis, Miami, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Portland, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, Tampa, and ***Washington, DC.***”
http://www.builderonline.com/mortgages-and-banking/fbi-launches-mortgage-fraud-task-force-in-the-nat.aspx
According to the FBI’s 2006 Mortgage Fraud Report, the top 10 mortgage fraud areas are California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Texas, and Utah. Other problematic areas are Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. The report also revealed that there is a “strong correlation between mortgage fraud and loans that result in default and foreclosure.”
Because Virginia was identified as a problematic area, the D.C. field office is establishing a regional task force.
“Northern Virginia was ripe for the pickings,” said Adam Lee, a supervisory special agent with the D.C. field office. “We were concerned that there would be a problem there and [the area] would become a hot spot.”
If you happen to know or suspect mortgage fraud has taken place:
https://tips.fbi.gov/
MP Resident
I was just doing some research in the Fairfax Co records on a property in Herndon and noticed several entries with a sales price of $0. I talked with a sales agent and he explained, in my case, that the $0 sales reflect a re-finance of the principle loan as of that date. What is unknown is if the new note value was increased, allowing the owner to cash out any accrued equity.
Speaking of foreclosed and vacant houses, has anyone besides me noticed that the vacant homes sometimes get “occupied” for a short period of time?
There are two in my neighborhood. They are vacant. Then all of a sudden
there are “renters” or the owners (?) appear and stay for a few days.
One that really bothered me is where I saw 4 men with 5 or 6 children playing in the front yard. Young children, under 5. Then poof, they were
gone. House vacant again……
Could they be getting word that these houses are not looked after at all and they are ripe for a stayover?
Is there someone to call to go check to see if they really are allowed to be there??
“Could they be getting word that these houses are not looked after at all and they are ripe for a stayover?”
That’s very likely.
If the house is on the market you can find the listing agent at http://www.franklymls.com and let them know that someone is squatting in the property. They can pass that information along to the owner.
Hey, “What’s next” —
Know who else is frequenting the 7-11 in Woodbridge and picking up workers ….
GDC.
The same GDC that the county is set to award a contract to tomorrow at the BOCS meeting to do some concrete crushing at the county landfill.
Why don’t you guys quit bitching and file a suit against the Banks for a nuisance? Start costing them more money and I’ll be they start paying attention.
Thank you Brian Leeper for the information. I will check that site.
There’s no real estate signs ot either house. Makes it hard for
someone like me to figure out if these people are OK being there
or not. I’ll also do the PWC mapper.
There are “significant” numbers of “Brokers” who have “for sale” signs up on these foreclosed homes, that are only selling and renting to one ethnic group, the same as their own ethnicity. These same homes have large numbers of renters who live in additional apartments built in the backs of these homes over and under deck platforms and basements who also only rent to the same ethnicity (all of this of course being Illegal). A significant number of them have bypassed power utility meters and “buried” the cables (usually orange extension cords visible from the street, until they Bury them at night, so you have to suspect some meter reader at the power company is ALSO from the same ethnic groups. Some “insider” is committing these crimes and is being “paid” under the table not to say anything by these renters or “ethnic group aligned” brokerage firms, working for a number of common real estate companies and for themselves “on the side”.
I have seen it all with my own eyes, no speculation and quessing for those of you who don’t believe it, get out and “walk” your neighborhoods with your homeowner’s associations. Then report it to the police.
There’s a house on Wilson in Manassas with a for-sale sign by Rosi Vilchez which is not on the MLS. It’s been for sale for about 2 months now. I wonder where, if not on the MLS, it’s being advertised for sale?
Surprised that Greg and following are just catching on to these realty schemes. It has been a highly collaborative effort between local realtors and lenders to get illegals on board with these profitable mortgage exchanges which made a lot of people very wealthy.
Real estate agents (frequently fellow Hispanics who were quite content to rip off the ethnic brethern) actively recruited illegals to properties they couldn’t afford by sell jobs that used false income info and collusive lenders to secure loans. Built into the business plan was a one or two year schedule which even anticipated the eventual default and foreclosure.
The scenario generally was get the illegals a loan and into the house, making a realtor profit on the sale commission, and a lender profit on the transaction and then sale of the paper to some bundler for the subprime portfolios. The new owner makes a big profit on fat rents to illegals and pays the mortgage for the teaser period. When the teaser resets to an unaffordable monthly payment, stop making payments but continue getting rental income. It takes another six months to put the property into foreclosure and take over the property, evicting the tenants. Whole process takes 12-18 months, providing a lucrative rental income for that period. Stripping the property upon evacuation is just an added bonus.
It was actually worse than I described. With realtor compliance, the buyer would inflate the sale price by $25000 and ask the seller for a cash payment of that amont. This would allow our illegal buyer to have ready cash to go out and buy a car or something. Banks didn’t care about the relatively trivail difference, it was all rolled into that fat mortgage. Sure, it was fraud, but who cared in the boom times.
There are a lot of people - local people - who should be going to jail over this shameful practice. Realtors, bankers, landlords, appraisers. They made huge profits and passed off the liabilities to the taxpayers and the local citizens. Don’t expect it to happen.