My daughter called me and said she sent me a link. «Check it», she said. I followed the link and it took me to the site I have visited before, www.gotoby.com. The site has interesting local (Flagler County) information, and is quite entertaining.
This time it was a shocker. A fellow real estate agent, Linda Kasper from Palm Coast, FL was arrested on March 15 by Florida Department of Law Enforcement as a result of a 2-year investigation named «Operation Fast Cash Kickback». There were other 14 individuals arrested in Miami, Delray Beach, Miramar, Doral...
«All 15 individuals were charged with one count of criminal racketeering and one count of conspiracy to commit racketeering, both first-degree felonies». It involved 23 homes and resulted in $9 Mil in losses.
The trick was rather simple. Linda would contact the Listing agent. She had a buyer who would like to buy a home, however, the Buyer wanted to do remodeling and wanted to add that amount on top of the Listing price. There were the appraisers involved, who would provide the appraisals, the homes would be financed at 100%, and sure enough, no remodeling was ever done, and homes ended up in foreclosure. The kickback money ranged from $25K to $320K for a sale.
Didn't Linda understand what was happening? Did she profit from the kickbacks? I do not know, but I would not be surprised to learn that Linda did not get more than her selling part of the commission. Of course, because of the scheme, she would raise the selling price (and the listing agents would raise the listing price in MLS to avoid suspicion), so instead of selling side commission of $200K, she would get the commission from $300K...
Interestingly, Don Tobin, the publisher of Go Toby, who is a real estate licensee in the State of Florida, did not just report it as news. He actually was the one who noticed this illegal activity and not only reported it to the authorities, but was persistent and got it to the investigation even after the initial reaction from law enforcement was less than enthusiastic.
When something like this happens right here at home, it is always shocking.
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