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Flip side of foreclosures
For buyers, losing their house is devastating. But foreclosures create steady business for specialized real-estate agents and workers who prepare homes to sell again.
Part 1: These homes were lost รข€¦ and that's just the beginning Part 2: If nobody's home, trouble comes calling Part 3: Foreclosure: the buck stops where? Part 4: Lending support to save homes Part 5: Foreclosure threat reaches the burbs Part 6: State can't keep up with mortgage fraud Part 7: Mortgage scams snare homeowners Map: Foreclosures in the Twin Cities e: News : Local -- TwinCities.com
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Friday, February 16, 2007
MORTGAGED LIVES: A special report.; Profiting From Fine Print With Wall Street's Help
By DIANA B. HENRIQUES WITH LOWELL BERGMAN
Published: March 15, 2000
Bernae Gunderson, a certified paralegal who lives in St. Paul, is not intimidated by fine print. But she was still puzzled by the mortgage documents she got in May 1998 from the First Alliance Corporation. This did not sound like the affordable home equity loan that she and her husband had been promised.
Thanks for St. Paul Pioneer Press 02/15/2007 Mortgage fraud's 'very hard lesson' help it takes time
Posted on Thu, Feb. 15, 2007
Mortgage fraud's 'very hard lesson'
Jill Lehn pleaded guilty and lost her real estate license. Now she's sharing her story in a magazine article.
BY JENNIFER BJORHUS
Pioneer Press
In an unusual about-face, a Prior Lake woman at the center of an ongoing federal investigation into mortgage fraud will bare her soul in an upcoming issue of Minnesota Realtor magazine.
Jill M. Lehn, who pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis in December, tells all in a four-page article she wrote for the magazine due out March 1. The article details her misdeeds while working as a closing agent at First Advantage Title Co.'s Burnsville office, which has since closed.
"It's a very hard lesson," Lehn told the Pioneer Press, adding that real estate "has been my whole life."
Lehn, 39, has admitted to preparing fraudulent documents in more than 60 real estate transactions between December 2004 and August 2006 where home values had been inflated. She puts a human face on what authorities and industry professionals describe as a near epidemic of fraud that has plagued the mortgage industry in recent years, helping fuel surging foreclosures.
Lehn said she had nothing to do with inflating the home values, but was responsible for dispersing some $3 million in extra money concealed from lenders, by cutting checks to buyers and sellers. The checks averaged about $40,000, she said. According to her plea agreement, the buyers knew in each case that they were signing fraudulent documents she had prepared, in order to get the pay out.
Both Lehn and a co-defendant are cooperating with the IRS, which started the case and is heading an investigation that industry professionals said they expect to result in several more arrests.
"We want to make sure the message gets out that IRS Criminal Investigation is taking a close look at abuses in this area," said Special Agent Janet Oakes in the St. Paul office.
The Minnesota Department of Commerce on Tuesday permanently revoked Lehn's real estate and notary licenses, barring her from working in the state. Lehn said she's staying home now to care for her baby and set her life straight. She wrote the article, she said, to warn other professionals about the schemes and to advocate for change. She said she deeply regrets what she did.
"It's something I did as a favor to people that has come back to bite me in ways I never imagined," Lehn said.. "I foolishly said yes once and opened up that pathway."
Lehn said she clearly recalls the first instance, about three years ago. A particular loan officer requested a favor, she said, to get a homebuyer extra cash back to improve the property.
Lehn told the Pioneer Press that her Minnetonka-based employer did not play an active role in the fraud, but that she thinks they knew it was occurring.
"Do I believe they had a knowledge? Yes," Lehn said.
The owner of First Advantage Title Co. was out of the country on vacation Wednesday, an employee said, and not reachable for comment.
One of Lehn's clients, Isadore Stewart, a real estate investor who lives in Bloomington, has also pleaded guilty in the scheme. Stewart pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud in relation to three properties he purchased at inflated prices last year, including one house in St. Paul's Frogtown neighborhood.
Sentencing dates have not been set for Lehn and Stewart. Lehn faces up to 71 months in prison and $100,000 in fines, according to her plea agreement. Stewart faces up to 33 months in prison and $60,000 in fines, according to his plea agreement.
Stewart said he couldn't discuss his case. Phillip Resnick, the Minneapolis attorney representing Stewart, described him as "a guy that bought a couple of properties." He described the ongoing probe as wide and "pretty extensive."
"[Lehn's] got dozens, if not hundreds more than just him," Resnick said. "My sense is that it goes beyond just her. That there are people that are higher up than she is."
The IRS probe is unrelated to a different cluster of appraisal-kickback schemes that the state Commerce Department is investigating, Commerce spokesman Bill Walsh said. Commerce has issued at least 25 subpoenas since April on similar schemes but hasn't closed any of the cases yet.
"There's plenty of work to go around," Walsh said.
Glenn Dorfman, chief operating officer of the Edina-based Minnesota Association of Realtors, applauded the federal investigation. He called Lehn and Stewart "just the beginning" of a fairly large federal operation.
"The next 90 days are going to be action-packed," Dorfman said.
Check the propertys of local officials
Lee Helgen.....1026 Como Place
Dave Thune.....26 Irvine Home....943-945 W 7th St. Rental & business.....327 Colburne rental house
Pat Harris.....1438 St. Clair
Chris Coleman.......686 Chippewa
Dan Bostrom......1646 E Shore dr.
Deb Montgomery 1016 Central
Jay Benanav......1898 Ashland
Joel Esslings mother.....Southwest corner of Lincoln & Albert St. (address # on Lincoln)
Joel Essling........913 Nevada
City Attorney Maureen Dolan......1447 Stanford
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