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Police in California recently ended a six-month investigation with the arrest of the owners of two California mortgage companies. The men are accused of forging mortgage documents and notary seals to steal equity from homeowners. Sacramento police have announced the arrest John Wilfred Curley, 37, owner of JC Lending, and Muhammad Adenwala, 30, owner of Mountain View Lending and a certified notary public, on suspicion of real estate fraud. “Investigators determined that Curley and Adenwala utilized information from customers to falsify quitclaim deeds,” Sacramento Police said in a statement. “The suspects, without the customers’ knowledge, would record the forged documents and obtain loan proceeds from the false information.” Police say they aren’t sure how many people were victimized by the alleged scam. The two were charged with recording false documents, forgery, grand theft and conspiracy.
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But since news about the arrests was reported in the local media, Sacramento Police Detective Mike Wood said other people who did business with Adenwala have come forward.
“There is more brewing on this guy,” Wood told MortgageDaily.com.
Wood said one of the keys to the alleged scam was Newalla’s misuse of his powers as a notary. Police say he would notarize false documents that made the scam possible.
Laws punishing notaries should be strengthened, or the procedure for qualifying notaries should be changed because now it is too easy to payoff a notary, Wood said.
“They can be bought,” he said. “Someone is only paying $20 to $100 for a transaction. Someone offers one a couple of thousand dollars to notarize something, and we get cases like this.
“There is not enough control over the notary industry,” he said.
Police first learned of the alleged scam in August when an estranged couple was dispensing of property during a settlement of their breakup.
“A gentleman was separated from his wife,” Wood said. “He wanted to refinance … so he contacted Curley.”
The man applied for the loan and about a month later the woman — who was originally apprehensive about the deal — finally agreed to sign the papers.
When the couple showed up at a title company to close, they found out that the loan had already been approved and the deed had been signed.
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While reviewing the documents the couple discovered their signatures had allegedly been forged, Wood said. “They had already been quitclaimed off the deed,” he said. “They were using quitclaims and customers’ information to process the loans.” Police began an investigation and discovered that other suspicious transactions were all allegedly preformed by the same notary. Authorities issued warnings in the Sacramento, alerting consumers who did business with either man to check their real estate records. |
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