In other, non-Alvarezian crime news, we're finding that economic hard times bring out the worst in people:
An 87-year-old Claremont woman as swindled out of her $800,000 home by a self-ordained minister named Leroy Dowd. Dowd, who formerly ran the Los Angeles-based Triumph Church of God, offered to help the victim with her Social Security and Medicare benefits if she signed her house over to him.
Then, working with two accomplices, Dowd sold the house and made an estimated $775,000 in the process. An article by KNBC-TV described how the scam worked:
POMONA, Calif. - A 71-year-old self-ordained minister is expected to be arraigned Wednesday on charges alleging he duped an 87-year-old Claremont woman into signing over the grant deed to her home. The accused, Leroy Dowd, operated the now-defunct Triumph Church of God in Los Angeles. His arraignment has been delayed for medical reasons, but he is expected to appear in Pomona Superior Court today.
Dowd met the woman through church in December 2006, and allegedly told her he could secure widow's benefits for Medicare and Social Security if she signed over the grant deed to her $800,000 home -- which was paid in full, according to the District Attorney's Office.
Dowd sold the home eight days later to Bessie Mae Moore, who allegedly posed as a straw buyer for the home and obtained financing through Alexander Trevino, who worked as a loan officer at a Glendale mortgage business and is accused of falsifying the financial information on Moore's loan application.
With the economy hurting, we're likely expect to see a rise in these sorts of scams. Just last March, the San Bernardino County District Attorney's office filed a case against another a group based in the San Fernando Valley accused of forging signatures on loan documents, sometimes with very high, undisclosed fees and sometimes without the homeowners' full knowledge.
In the same case, California Attorney General Jerry Brown's office froze the mortgage broker's assets and filed a civil action seeking $20 million in fines and restitution against the company.
A 3/19/08 LA Times article reported on the details of the criminal and civil actions against the group:
California authorities said today they cracked a mortgage fraud ring that allegedly victimized thousands of Californians, some of them elderly and some who lost their homes.
The San Bernardino County district attorney’s office this morning arrested five people and were waiting for two more to surrender to face charges of conspiracy, grand theft and elder abuse as part of a crackdown on alleged sub-prime mortgage lending scams with the California Department of Justice.
A related lawsuit filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court accuses six companies of using predatory lending practices to trap homeowners in illegal and expensive loans.
As the mortgage crisis worsens, a growing number of fly-by-night companies are employing utterly brazen tactics to push homeowners into illegal and unconscionable loans,” Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown said. “The illegal sales practices of these companies … included psychological pressure, forgery and outright lies.”
The companies, which did business throughout Southern California, used bait-and-switch tactics to take advantage of thousands of consumers, costing many of them their homes, Brown said.
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