December 4, 2008
The Housing Bubble BlogThe St Petersburg Times reports from Florida. “A national report released Tuesday said Florida leads the nation in mortgage fraud. As the report was being released, a federal jury in Broward County was returning guilty verdicts in a scam case that included $5-million in fraudulent mortgages. Howard Gaines, a lawyer who worked as a title agent, was accused of falsifying closing documents. Gaines has not been charged in connection with any of his work in Hillsborough County, where he processed one-third of the home sales by a Tampa tattoo parlor owner named Sang-Min Kim.”
“Sonny Kim, as he’s known, was profiled in a St. Petersburg Times story Sunday that recounted his flipping of properties, about one-third of which have been foreclosed. The story pointed to some questionable mortgages, including one for $300,000 on a run-down house that now can be had for $35,000.”
“Since 2004, Kim has bought and sold about 90 homes in some of Tampa’s poorest neighborhoods. Property records show buyers paid Kim $10.7-million for homes he bought for $6.5-million. Many homes that Kim sold ended up in foreclosure, meaning that many of the same banks that are now getting billions in a federal bailout were left with worthless property.”
http://thehousingbubbleblog.com/?p=5120
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