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A 9 year fraud battle has a happy ending.

By
Real Estate Agent with 1st Action Real Estate

Any of you who remember when I first started activeraining, I wrote a lot about fraud. Real estate fraud had only just come to our region in a big way and Realtors® were trying to grapple with this new issue. Problem was, nobody else thought it was an issue. Banks didn't care, law enforcement wasn't interested, our DA, the Dept. of Real Estate, FBI - you name it, nobody cared.

So over the years I've written a lot about the Stonewood Case - a house kiting scheme with some investment undertones. By the time the law finally got on the case, the perp's were indicted for $143 MILLION dollars. Yeah, not exactly chump change. It really jump started our foreclosure market back in 2006-2007 as these places started to dump back onto the market in ever increasing numbers.

It's been a 9 year effort led by local Realtors®, some tenacious reporters, our board attorney and a bunch of victims who weren't afraid to stand up.

Yesterday the last two perp's were found guilty. Hendrix Montecastro and his mother Helen Padrino. There were 9 people indicted, the others were so guilty they all plead guilty. These two decided to test it in court and act as their own counsel. Yeah, that worked well. So instead of the few or tens of years their cohorts were dealt, Padrino is up for 30+ and Hendrix is down for 100.

All I can say is, he looks a lot better in his orange jumpsuit than he did in the 3 piece Armani's he used to sport when he'd come into the office to try to intimidate us. Sentencing comes in a couple weeks.

You can read some of the history and testimony here:

http://www.pe.com/business/business-headlines/20130325-fraud-trial-guilty-verdicts-in-multimillion-dollar-ponzi-case.ece

Comments (3)

KATERINA VILLA-GARCIA
RE/MAX Premier Group - Tampa, FL

great job!!

Mar 26, 2013 11:28 AM
Evelyn Johnston
Friends & Neighbors Real Estate - Elkhart, IN
The People You Know, Like and Trust!

Wow, what a real life story! Thanks for keeping at it and making it come to life.  I love your orange flowers! What are they?

Mar 26, 2013 12:39 PM
Gene Wunderlich
1st Action Real Estate - Murrieta, CA
Realtor & Legislative Liaison

Evelyn, that is our state flower the California Poppy. They grow wild in the hilld and next to freeways but are tough to grow domestically. Over the next couple weks we will stgart to see their shining liuttle faces pop up everywhere. 

Mar 27, 2013 05:27 AM