#real-estate-fraud

#real-estate-fraud

Edward Harold King was taken into custody along with real estate investor Sam Sprei and charged with wire fraud conspiracy for allegedly swiping money from an escrow account they set up on a real estate deal in Freehold, N.J. King, an attorney, was a Supreme Court judge from June 2024 to December 2025, when he agreed to resign from office as federal investigators intensified their probe into the fraud complaint for which he was arrested for Wednesday. Both King and Sprei are expected to be arraigned on the charges in Brooklyn Federal Court Wednesday afternoon.

In 2025, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center logged 1,008,597 cyber-enabled crime complaints, with losses surpassing $20.8 billion, marking a 26% rise from the prior year.

The Marin County District Attorney's Office said it is looking into complaints from some of more than 100 investors in Pacific Private Money who say that since December they haven't been able to access money invested with the company. The company, which claimed to have funded over $2 billion in property loans over its nearly two-decade history, is now being run by a San Francisco restructuring firm, and the Novato office is closed.

DANVILLE The principal owner of Blackhawk Plaza in Danville is tangled in a web of failed real estate loans in Southern California that have engulfed multiple banks and created murky prospects for the delinquent properties. Deba Shyam, who heads up Ramanujan Group, the owner of the ailing retail and dining hub near the posh Blackhawk enclave, is a key figure, along with two other real estate executives, in a thicket of murky financing deals for at least 15 Southern California properties and one in Texas.

Acharya and Silicon Sage would frequently shift money from investors through numerous bank accounts at lightning-quick speeds to keep cash flows from drying up, according to papers filed by a court-appointed receiver. Silicon Sage and Acharya maintained 77 different bank accounts and engaged in at least 130,000 banking transactions over a period of eight years, the documents filed by the receiver show.

Mortgage refinance demand is 111% higher than last year, a surge fueled by declining mortgage rates and renewed interest from homeowners looking to improve their financial position. Refinancing can certainly be a smart movea way to lower monthly payments, consolidate debt, or tap into home equity. But this sense of routine can mask the very real risks involved. Many assume a refinance is simply a streamlined, less complicated process compared to purchasing a home.

The fact that he met them in public [near] his place of work, which is a police station, obviously provided, I would think, some other form of assurance for our clients that this was a legitimate real estate transaction, said Alex Henderson, the plaintiffs' lawyer. He was someone whose job is to maintain public trust as a police officer; I'm sure that did play a role in our clients decision to trust him.

Prosecutors say three individuals and three companies falsified heir documents, forged signatures, and used the property to secure loans, all while the true owners were unaware of what was happening. Angela Jazmin Ramos Malpica, 35, Yuan Kuei Li, 41, Abdur Rahman, 34, and the companies Great Neck Acquisitions Inc., White Lotus Consulting Inc., and Ocean Property and Trading Inc. are accused of working together to steal a brownstone at 267 West 131st Street and using it to obtain a mortgage and construction loan.

"Deepa Roy and Victor Quimis preyed on an elderly widow in hospice to steal the home she owned for nearly 40 years," AG Letitia James said.

The lawsuit claims defendants committed real estate fraud by selling defective homes and utilizing fraudulent paperwork to close transactions, violating multiple laws and regulations.

"He stole our lives," said Clotilde "Wendy" Sawadogo, deed theft victim. "We were no longer happy in our house. We were feeling like strangers in our own homes."

"This hurt me a lot because I believed him, and I trusted him to have a home, and it didn't happen... He took me to this site to see the home, but it wasn't my home."

Cantu's sentence reflects the serious damage caused by her fraudulent activities, underscoring the need for accountability in cases of manipulated real estate transactions.