Monday, September 10, 2007

State accuses Crisp & Cole of FRAUD

UPDATE: Be sure to watch Fox Channel 6 tonight at 10. They have an "interview" with Crisp.


READ THE Accusations!!!(warning pdf)


From KBAK TV 29:

The California Department of Real Estate is accusing the once high profile, real estate team of Crisp & Cole of fraud.

In a filing faxed to Eyewitness News, the state alleges eight causes of action against David Crisp, Carl Cole, their lending arm "Tower Lending" and three other associates. Among the accusations, fraud and dishonest dealings in several real estate purchases conducted by the now defunct Bakersfield firm.

Kiyoshi Tomono's Blog

From KGET.com:

BAKERSFIELD - The California Department of Real Estate has filed a formal accusation accusing David Crisp and Carl Cole and their now-defunct realty firm of fraud.

The accusation names Crisp, Cole, the Crisp & Cole firm, Tower Lending, and several others with whom they allegedly performed unlawful real estate transactions. The action could result in the revocation of the licenses of the accused.

None of the accused immediately returned phone calls from Channel 17. The accusation says the Crisp and Cole were guilty of fraud in how they got mortgages for some of the high-end southwest Bakersfield properties they bought in 2005.


22 comments:

Anonymous said...

These bastards are going down!!!

Rob Dawg said...

And the grand total extent of the powers in this case is that their licenses can be revoked 9 times.

The DA had damn well better take the fax and arrest their asses. As it is every minute they remain free is a travesty of justice.

Anonymous said...

Bwahahahah. No defense, and his ex-employees will testify against him. The only question now is how long a sentence he'll receive. LOL

Anonymous said...

I'm sure the DA is working on it...they're just taking longer to go through the mountain of evidence.

Anonymous said...

They'll lose their CA licenses, never spend a day inside, and move on to another state.

Lou Minatti said...

They'll lose their CA licenses, never spend a day inside, and move on to another state.

Isn't this separate and apart from (assumed) investigations by the FBI? This is a mere parking ticket. The deep pounding is still to come.

Anonymous said...

"Assumed" FBI investigation. Uh, yeah, ok.

ALOT of cash hit his accounts over the last few years. How much of that is now safely off-shore?

He's young, 28, he'll be fine. Maybe even better than fine ;)

Rob Dawg said...

Crisp didn't squirrel anything away. Like Casey their personalities wouldn't allow them to consider Plan B. If he had any cash he used it to keep the ponzi scheme rolling over.

I'm still mystified how anyone could have spent 2 minutes looking at his story and not immediately concluded fraud.

Anonymous said...

"Crisp didn't squirrel anything away."

LOL!!

Anonymous said...

I'm still shocked that two goons could drive up real estate prices for everyone else there and all they'll get is their license revoked?

Bakersfield Bubble said...

Rob said

"The DA had damn well better take the fax and arrest their asses. As it is every minute they remain free is a travesty of justice. "

Agree! It is now right in front of their face. They have no excuse for prosecuting this case.

Bakersfield Bubble said...

Lou said
"Isn't this separate and apart from (assumed) investigations by the FBI?"

That is what I am hearing, however, no confirmation.

Bakersfield Bubble said...

The Sluga person listed in the complaint is related to the Crisps. The daughter Sluga was featured in the story where they went to her work and tried to interview her.

Her father is a local CPA and she was the receptionist who took a few million in loans and they are now in foreclosure.

It appears his wife also claimed to own the CPA firm when she was in fact a bookkeeper.

I wonder if the State of Ca CPA board would like to know about this stuff??

Bakersfield Bubble said...

Lets summarize what we know about these guys from the various reports and all part of the public record:


Over $50 million of defaulted loans on 80 homes.


IRS Tax Liens for David and Jennifer Crisp


DRE charges against Tower Lending & Carl Cole


DRE fraud charges against Crisp, Cole, and others


Chicago Title lawsuit for missing an undisclosed lien for over $100k


Various vender lawsuits - Enterprenuer Mag, Bakersfield Californian, KABK...totaling over $200k


Defunct Corporation and a claim by Jack Doremus that they "couldn't make payroll"


Unpaid property taxes and homeowners assocation dues on various homes.


Accusations of a bait and switch by the residents in the Oildale neighborhood who claim they were leasing to own homes when they were actually renting homes. These homes are now in foreclosure.


Did I miss anything?

Anonymous said...

Those who think these guys will get a mediocre punishment here, then simply move on to a bright future in Real Estate in some other city are WRONG!

Anyone under the age of 30 can find virtually anything and everything (i.e. photos, news, comments, blog posts, dirty laundry, etc...)about a person who has at one time been a public discussion topic. And, these youngsters can search and find this dirty laundry pile from any place in the world.

So, maybe, the fraudsters from the 70s, 80s, and 90s (and at anytime in history) were able to simply pick up shop and move to another city for more successful duping. But that don't work no more!

One felony conviction now means they'll never be in any business anywhere ever again!

Anonymous said...

It's a beginning, at least. Now, I'd like for them to move down to the $2.2M fraudsters. Who'd a thunk $2.2M was a minor fraud?

I seriously hope this moves beyond the DRE slap on the hand into the realm of serious prison time.

It needs to be, there are far too many examples that already exposed these “make it rain” types to just let the local states let them off with a hand slap.

Rob said: I'm still mystified how anyone could have spent 2 minutes looking at his story and not immediately concluded fraud.

Rawb, The first time I read this story back in 2004-5, I wondered how I could be such a loser. I am fairly intelligent, financially conscious/conscientious. Yet I felt I was too fearful and non-entrepreneurial to make these kinds of things work. Which meant I was effed for life.

I felt like a loser because I wasn't/couldn't take on that kind of risk.

Do you get where I was coming from? Yeah, great wealth sometimes takes great risk. If I'd managed to bend my beliefs for a couple of years, I'd have been set for life.

If C&C had also been willing, they'd have been set for life. Unfortunately for untold homeowners; once bent, always broken.

Thank Gawd for my weak knees!

Cheers,
-Curious

P.S. I only swore not to post to your blog again tonight! : P

Raynor said...

No one listens {yawn}

Oh well. The DA will let other alphabet soup agencies handle this.

DRE is only tip of proverbial iceberg.

FBI has accountant and lawyers as agents who do nothing but this kind of thing. Its all chain of evidence and paper trail for court.

But they are abysmally S L O W !

xs10shell said...

They can go to Nevada:

Nevada homeowners need the state’s commissioner of the Nevada Mortgage Lending Division to be a consumer advocate, but instead Gov. Jim Gibbons appointed the former senior counsel to New Century Financial Corp., a bankrupt firm that federal investigators are now examining for possible predatory lending.



Joe Waltuch is scheduled to start today in a $94,000-a-year job funded by the very Nevada taxpayers who could be losing their homes because of predatory lending. [“Former lobbyist granted state job,” Las Vegas Review-Journal, Sept. 5, 2007]

Anonymous said...

"They can go to Nevada"

Yea, no doubt they'll probably be able to get a job...probably something in a government agency. Just like in the movie Catch Me If You Can. But the idea they will own their own Real Estate company again is going to be out of the question.

Anonymous said...

Raynor-

You can add to you list of agencies that may be investigating the IRS-

In addition to defrauding their lenders, C & C's motivation in borrowing $ under the guise that it was for a primary residence was probably tax evasion.

And the IRS generally doesn't hold punches!

Raynor said...

Anon: Of course you are right. I can remember cases where oil thefts (on a massive scale I might add) took place and no agencies would pursue prosecution.

Until..... the IRS appeared on the scene. Non-Payment Of WPT. They nailed them! The $100K lien is just the beginning.

Think Al Capone for a more famous example!

Skymaster restoration said...

Any man in the position of authority, who choses to lure young under age men into a sexual relationship should have been removed from society. This man is a piece of garbage...and proves it with his latest scandal. He is a pedophile plain and simple, and for his wife to stand by him during these charges means she condoned the actions too. Shame on them and may god have mercy on them! Screw crisp&cole