Real Estate Broker Realfi Served As A Spotter For Mortgage Fraud Leader Ronnie Duke | PRC News Release

Real Estate Broker Realfi Served As A Spotter For Mortgage Fraud Leader Ronnie Duke | PRC News Release:

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(press release distribution) Internal documents, public records and insider interviews have revealed that Ronnie Duke, the mastermind behind the largest mortgage fraud case in the country, had help from Waterford, Michigan mortgage and real estate broker Charles “Chuck” Gottlieb of Realfi.

U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade said of the case against Ronnie Duke “This is the largest mortgage fraud that we have seen in terms of the number of properties that were involved and money stolen.”

Evidence obtained shows that Gottlieb and Theresa Bush, a realtor in Gottliebs’ company, not only served as “spotters” for the scheme, but knew that what they were doing not above board illegal.

Gottlieb and Bush would approach home sellers who had not listed with a broker but were trying to sell them “For Sale By Owner,” with the proposition that if they could give the seller their asking price, would the seller agree to one hundred to two hundred thousand dollar ($100,000 – $200,000) broker commission.

The sellers that agreed to the terms would then have their houses listed on the MLS at the agreed upon inflated price and then close with one of Duke’s buyers.

Gottlieb and Bush would then split the commissions with Duke’s one of Dukes’ other spotters that he used to complete the transactions.

“There are several things wrong with that type of transaction,” revealed a real estate and mortgage expert.  “First the fact that they only approached sellers who hadn’t listed their homes on the MLS and then once they agreed to the terms, Gottlieb and Bush would then would list the home on the MLS shows that they knew that a bank would not agree to finance a home for 200k over what someone was asking.

“That they would then list the property on the MLS in order make it to appear to be a legitimate transaction, when in fact it was not, shows that they truly conspired to defraud whatever bank was unlucky enough to end up financing the transaction. To the bank it would look legitimate when in actuality it was fraud committed to steal from the bank.

“Lastly, what they got the client to agree to is actually illegal in the state of Michigan.  What they’ve done is what’s called a Net Listing, which you cannot do in our state.”

All of the homes that Gottlieb and Bush were involved in with Duke subsequently went into foreclosure, defrauding the banks that were duped of millions of dollars.

Multiple sources have also confirmed that Gottlieb and Bush knew that they were doing something against their fiduciary duty as they held back some of the inflated commissions they received from the transactions in a special fund that Gottlieb said were to be used just in case they ever had to go to court over the transactions.

One of Ronnie Dukes’ other spotters Hussein “Sam” Bazzi, has already plead guilty due to his role in the mortgage fraud scheme and is currently awaiting sentencing.

It has yet to be determined what the sentence will be for Gottlieb and Bush due to their involvement in the state’s largest mortgage fraud scheme to date.

Author: Sharon Jacobsen