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stonewood: Murrieta Men Agree to Prison in Fraud Case - 01/26/11 11:11 AM
Murrieta men agree to prison in fraud case
The headline was exciting yesterday when news of our long-time resident scam artists started to trickle out. The authors of a $142 million dollar ponzi scheme & investment fraud have been in jail awaiting this moment for the past 1 1/2 years and now start to look forward to doing the rest of their time.
Long-time readers will be familiar with the Stonewood case, wherein these perpetrators enticed hundreds of people to invest in real estate. But not just invest - they were talked into buying homes for $100,000 or more … (3 comments)

stonewood: Long awaited Riverside County Mortgage Fraud Trial gets Underway. - 11/10/10 03:22 PM
At long last the trial has begun for the perpetrators of the so-called Stonewood Scam in Southwest Riverside County. Long time readers are acquainted with the basics of this story from my years-long chronicle of events. Our local association tried to bring this to the attention of law enforcement beginning in late 2004 but were unsuccessful in catching anybodys ear until the scam had nearly run its course and started to collapse under its own weight. 
The real estate part of it consisted of representatives from Stonewood Financial buying homes at significant premiums over asking price. As this was at a time … (2 comments)

stonewood: HALLELUJAH! Mortgage Fraud Scamsters Finally Arrested (just 5 years too late). - 11/19/09 09:37 PM
Here's today's update "Seven Accused of Defrauding Investors of Millions"
HALLELUJAH!!!! 
If I sound ecstatic it's because the biggest fraudsters in our area have finally been charged! These three, Montecastro, Duncan and McLeod started their mortgage fraud scheme in Murrieta in 2004. Our association and our chief counsel started documenting the problem late that year. We took it to the District Attorney, the FBI, the Dept. of Real Estate, the Attorney General, local law enforcement, lenders, etc. - and nobody NOBODY would give us the time of day. 
This scam was the incentive for our Association (SRCAR) to join our neighboring … (61 comments)

stonewood: Federal Judge Gives $58.6 million Fraud Judgement - Against Our Local Nemesis. - 07/07/09 11:13 PM
Chris Bagley at the Californian forwarded this great article. Some of you have been following our saga with these gentlemen for the past few years. This was the original group in our area to pull off the old $150,000 overpay scheme. That and some investment 'vehicles' that the SEC cracked down on last year. Our Real Estate Fraud Task Force, which we formed nearly five years ago with the Inland Valley Association, was initially in response to this group. They operated under the umbrella of Stonewood Financial and a variety of aliases. Chris at the Californian, Leslie Berkman at the PE and others … (2 comments)

stonewood: $100 Million+ Fraud Ring May Be Caput. Finally. - 03/13/08 03:12 PM
Source - The Californian
MURRIETA -- Authorities have expanded criminal investigations into a real estate investment group that abandoned more than 100 homes to foreclosure since late 2006, a development that could put off a series of civil lawsuits against the group's managers.The FBI searched the homes of James Duncan and Hendrix Montecastro on Feb. 22 after obtaining a warrant, according to prosecutors and an attorney defending Duncan in a related civil lawsuit. Several dozen former clients are suing the two Murrieta-area residents and a third, Maurice McLeod, alleging that the three men duped them into buying multiple houses at inflated prices … (3 comments)