The following was sent to me by a friend and is a good case in point about my previous post. This is not the first case of fraud in the Anchorage area regarding Lenders and/or Realtors. Makes one question other cities across the nation.
I made a deragatory comment about realtors, and apologize for grouping them together. Certainly, there are decent agents and decent lenders. A good friend of mine was a real estate agent and she is indeed a person of integrity.
Real estate agent guilty of fraudAnchorage Daily News(03/25/08 00:28:52)
Anchorage real estate agent Michael Sorensen Jr. pleaded guilty to wire fraud in federal court on Monday and surrendered his real estate license, according to the U.S. Attorney's office.
Sorensen, 40, was an associate broker with ReMax Properties Inc. and also owned a local remodeling and construction company, Right Way Construction.
Federal prosecutors said Monday that Sorensen used the construction company to falsely inflate the sales price of local properties from 2004 to 2006 by submitting "false invoices" for repairs and remodeling to title companies, which then prepared false settlement statements reflecting work never done to the properties.
Mortgage companies relied on the false settlement statements when they wired money for the inflated loans to local title companies, according to prosecutors.
The mortgage companies were defrauded and the money that was supposedly used to pay for repairs was instead given back to the buyers in a so-called "cash-back" scheme. Sorensen's indictment in December listed six cash-back deals totaling $137,200 in bogus repairs. Sorensen benefited from the scheme by receiving a higher commission on the property sale, prosecutors said.
In his plea agreement, Sorensen has agreed to pay a fine that will at least equal the amount of commissions he received from the fraudulent deals, according to prosecutors.
His sentencing has been scheduled for May 30, and a maximum sentence could involve 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
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