Hathaway Duke

Margaret Carole Fisher was charged in a one count information with aiding and abetting mail fraud, resulting from a scheme to defraud home owners, lending institutions and title companies, in which Fisher participated from at least Spring, 2002 through…

William Roosevelt Cloud and Juderita Russell were convicted by a North Carolina jury following a two week trial of multiple fraud offenses arising from millions of dollars in fraudulently obtained residential mortgage loans. Cloud, a promoter in the sc…

Foreclosure Assistance Solutions, LLC of Florida, and its principal operators, Herb Zerden and Adolfo Quintero, as well as J.W.W. Services, Inc., of California and owner John Woodruff, are prohibited from targeting and deceiving Texans who fall behind …

hat tip to Ben Ganje @ Your Urban Life for the image. Click for larger. Inspired by this Image, if you don’t get the reference. A reader, who has reserved a unit at the Nicollet, inquires: “I really enjoy your website. Could you please do an update or send me an e-mail personally regarding the current status of The Nicollet. Do people generally get their reservation/deposit money back if a project and purchase agreement is cancelled by the developer, or should I be getting ready to contact a lawyer for assistance? I would certainly hold my purchase agreement if I had confidence that something (whether residential or mixed use) was going to get built there, but my doubts are increasing. What would be the best way to proceed at this point in time, in your opinion, hold tight or attempt to withdraw?” Our best information on the Nicollet, which is in no way concrete, (and culled from spots like Minnescraper and the semi-reliable insider chatter,) says that the Nicollet will be scaling back to 45 stories, and be a mixed use project. From the Minnescaper forums: It will be 45 stories high, with underground parking for 300 cars, 22,000 sf of retail space, 16,500 sf of banquet space, a 20,000 sf health club and spa, 437,000 sf of office space, a 260 room hotel and 177,000 sf of condos…. Right now the project and the preliminary concept design work product are in the hands of the real estate department and their brokers and agents to market the idea to tenants for the office space, a franchise for the hotel and buyers for the condomuniums. Our guess is that a building will eventually be built on that site, and it will have a residential component to it, but how many units, the exact usage mix, and more importantly when it is finished is another matter. It is hard to imagine anything completed there before 2010, in our opinion. As for the earnest money, in the vast, vast majority of cases, earnest money is refunded upon cancellation with few questions asked, and we’ve heard that this developer is treating everyone fairly. That said, if the developer is foreclosed upon, files BK, or undergoes some other major financial crisis, earnest money can and does get mis-appropriated, and can be sucked into legal battles (see, the Sexton) so it is not a risk free proposition letting someone else hold that dough indefinitely. Can you wait until 2010, or 2011? Nothing better to do with that cash? If so, then let it ride, but there’s probably a better place to park that dough while you wait for the development team to sort things out, so we’d probably advise pulling out, and taking another look once the plans, scope, and timeline are clear - we doubt that it will sell out before you can re-enter.

NYT shines the light on the ginormous foreclosure auction held at the Minneapolis convention center this weekend: In a down real estate market, they came to buy. They came early, they came in numbers and they came with bank checks for $5,000. By 10 a.m. Saturday, more than 700 people filled a hall in the convention center here for what real estate agents say is the largest auction of foreclosed properties ever in Minnesota, with more than 300 houses or apartments for sale in two days. Given that 85 percent of the homes on the block sold, we might assume that there is some pent up demand in our market for homes at the right price - which would be a good sign. Though the 300 or so homes made available represent only a sliver of actual foreclosures, and experts at the auction were circumspect: Paul Schoenecker, owner of a local franchise of HomeVestors, the people who post the “We Buy Ugly Houses” billboards, said a minority of the sales were true bargains. Only time will tell whether the new crop of investors at the Auction were savvy buyers who sensed a bottom, or a fresh set of dreamers lured by memories of a hot real estate market from years past. We think most are in the latter group - after all, the stakes are high, and things happened lightning fast. Not a recipe for success, especially for the less experienced: Buyers were required to provide a $5,000 bank check, along with a personal check to bring their contribution up to 5 percent of the purchase price. Upon placing a winning bid, they proceeded to financing tables in the back — with no opportunity to further inspect the property or negotiate repairs. The bidding for most houses took less than three minutes. Buyers Pounce on Deals as Homes go on the Block [NYT]

Graphic via MSNBC Last Week: Despite renewed concerns in the credit markets, mortgage rates charted modest improvement as the stock market struggled. The DJIA shed roughly 500 pts through the week. This Week: New and existing home sales report this week. Look for mortgage bonds to take their cue from the stock market, whose woes, if continued, may give the Fed enough latitiude for another cut in October. If stocks do well, rates may rise, if they do poorly, they will likely fall further. This Week’s Economic Calendar [Barrons]

Azem Limani, 37, Anchorage, Alaska, was sentenced in federal court to 18 months imprisonment for violations of wire fraud and engaging in monetary transactions in criminally derived property related to a mortgage fraud scheme involving properties in Ac…

Radostina Todorova, acting as real estate broker and engaged at times in loan originator practices, was at the center of a mortgage fraud scheme. One Renaissance Place, Palatine, Illinois, was the target of a real estate flipping scheme involving 13 un…

Jeanette Amaya, 49, who is suspected of using a forged deed to steal a residence in the 1900 block of North Western, San Bernardino, California, has been arrested. Investigators then served a search warrant at that residence where gang memorabilia and …

Rollo Richard “Rick” Norton II and Scott Greer pled guilty in San Diego federal court to a felony charge of mail fraud, arising from their participation in a scheme to draw equity out of a San Diego condominium complex through a series of sham purc…