A Southern California brother and sister were arrested Tuesday (April 6) on federal charges in connection with a $6 million real estate scam they allegedly orchestrated. Pictured is a home in a Southern California community.
Adolfo Schoneke, 43, of Torrance, and Bianca Gonzalez, 38, of Walnut, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to nine federal charges, including seven counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy and one count of aggravated identity theft, City News Service reported. If convicted, the two face a maximum sentence of 162 years in prison.
The case is currently scheduled to go to trial on June 1.
According to the federal indictment, Schenek and Gonzalez conspired to operate various real estate and escrow companies under different names, including MCR and West Coast, in Paredo, La Palma and Long Beach.
The suit says the duo searched for homes to target (but many were actually non-sale homes that they had no authority to list) and then placed them on the housing market for sale, marketing them as Short Sales (selling for less than the amount the seller owed the bank on the loan) and conducting short sales to offer buyers the opportunity to buy below market value.
The duo also used their broker’s licenses to list these homes for sale on real estate websites such as Multiple Listing Service, the lawsuit documents say. At times, the homes were sold through open houses, which the duo held after obtaining access to the homes by deceiving the homeowners.
In addition, the duo accepted multiple offers from buyers for each non-sale property, but concealed this from the buyers, making each buyer believe that his or her offer was the only one accepted.
The two defendants also conspired to deceive victims about the need for lenders to approve so-called short sale home transactions, so that closings were delayed, sometimes for years.
The indictment also states that Schoenecker and Gonzalez also instructed employees to open bank accounts in the names of company employees for the purpose of receiving deposits on homes and other fraudulent payments from the victims. The victims, in turn, were persuaded to pay the full amount into these bank accounts after receiving forged approval letters for the sale of their homes from the pair.
In addition, Schenek and Gonzalez instructed staff to withdraw large amounts of cash from these bank accounts and give it to them in order to appropriate the proceeds of the fraud while concealing their involvement in the fraudulent scheme.
Investigators estimate that several hundred victims were defrauded of a total of more than $6 million.
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