Two indicted in $20 million Detroit flipping scheme
Thursday, June 19, 2008 at 4:02PM In the following press release [page 2] Stephen J. Murphy United States Attorney Eastern District of Michigan announced that Kurt Warren Heintz, 37, of Grand Blanc, Michigan and real estate appraiser James Jeffery Fish, 40, of Howell, are charged in an Information with having engaged in a systemic mortgage fraud scheme throughout Michigan, primarily in Genesee County, Michigan.
Heintz was involved in the purchase of numerous properties and paid real estate appraisers including Fish to appraise the properties for more than their true market value. Straw buyers were recruited and acquired mortgage loans in their names based on the inflated property values. Payments on the mortgage loans eventually ceased, thus exposing lending institutions to significant losses as the true value of the properties was substantially less than the outstanding mortgage loan balances. The fraudulent appraisals typically appraised the properties for more than twice their true value.
The scheme involved approximately 70 properties, and has exposed lenders to losses of approximately $20,000,000.
The Editor - Ian Shuter - ACFE, DMS
mlive.com reports that on February 6, 2009 Kurt W. Heintz pleaded guilty Friday in U.S. District Court in Detroit to one count of bank fraud in a $20-million scam using inflated property appraisal values on about 70 properties in the area.
A co-defendant in his case, James J. Fish, a Howell real estate appraiser, also pleaded guilty to the same charge last week.
Both are expected to be sentenced on June 3rd, 2009.
This matter became infamous when one of the victims of the fraud was imprisoned for 3 years for the stabbing of Heintz’s wife.
The mlive article can be read here [internet link] or [PDF version]
The DOJ press release will be posted when received.
The Editor - Ian Shuter - ACFE, DMS
Kurt Warren Heintz, age 39, of Grand Blanc, Michigan, formerly the owner of Great Lakes Broker Funding in Grand Blanc, Michigan, was sentenced on Wednesday, February 10, 2010, to 65 months in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons on one count of Financial Institution Fraud in violation of Section 1344 of Title 18 of the United States Code.
Sentenced at the same time was James Fish, age 41, of Royal Oak, Michigan, formerly a licensed real estate broker in the State of Michigan, who was sentenced to serve 30 months in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons on one count of Financial Institution Fraud in violation of Section 1344 of Title 18 of the United States Code.
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