June 24 average daily rates in Orange County for 30-year fixed loans with one-point fee: Conforming up to 6.078%, Jumbo up to 7.446% and Conforming-Jumbo up to 7.208% (Note: conforming-jumbo rates are for loans from $417,000 to $729,750, while conforming is up to $417,000 -- both types are sold to GSEs. Jumbos here are $730,000 or higher and not sold to GSEs.)
Source: Newspaper Chart Services 
La Habra man, 18 others indicted in alleged mortgage scam
March 24th, 2008, 5:45 pm · 17 Comments · posted by Matt Padilla, Register Reporter and Blogger
Federal authorities said today they indicted Charles Head of La Habra and 18 others in an alleged mortgage scam involving more than 100 homes nationwide.
Three United States Attorneys are prosecuting the case following an “Operation Homewrecker” investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service.
In the first of two indictments, prosecutors allege Head’s fraud ring netted $6.7 million from 47 homeowners. The release states:
“On February 28, 2008, a federal grand jury returned the first set of charges in a 13-count indictment against 16 defendants with violations of mail fraud, conspiracy to commit mail fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and other related offenses.”
The first indictment involved an alleged foreclosure-rescue scam: Struggling homeowners added a stranger to their home’s title after being promised that their missed payments would be made for them, but instead the home loan was immediately refinanced and all the equity stripped, prosecutors said. Defendants in the first indictment are:
CHARLES HEAD,33, of La Habra, California; JEREMY MICHAEL HEAD, 30, of Huntington Beach, California; ELHAM ASSADI, aka Elham Assadi Jouzani, aka Ely Assadi, 30, of Irvine, California; LEONARD BERNOT, 51, of Laguna Hills, California; AKEMI BOTTARI, 28, of Los Angeles; JOSHUA COFFMAN, 29, of North Hollywood; JOHN CORCORAN, aka Jack Corcoran, 52, of Anaheim; SARAH MATTSON, 27, of Phoenix, Arizona; DOMONIC McCARNS, 33, of Brea, California; ANH NGUYEN, 36, of Los Angeles; OMAR SANDOVAL, 32, of Rancho Cucamonga, California; XOCHITL SANDOVAL, 29, of Rancho Cucamonga; EDUARDO VANEGAS, 28, of Phoenix; ANDREW VU, 39, of Santa Ana; JUSTIN WILEY, 28, of Irvine; and KOU YANG, 32, of Corona, California.
Here’s what the release says about the second indictment:
On March 13, 2008, the federal grand jury returned a five-count indictment in “Head Two” against seven defendants, including CHARLES HEAD, JOHN CORCORAN, KOU YANG, each also charged in “Head One,” as well as KEITH BROTEMARKLE, 42, of Johnstown, Pennsylvania; BENJAMIN BUDOFF, 41, of Colorado Springs, Colorado; DOMONIC McCARNS, 33, of Brea; and LISA VANG, 24, of Westminster. “Head Two” involved an “equity stripping” scheme, netting approximately $5.9 million in stolen equity from 68 homeowners in states across the nation. While still targeting distressed homeowners and defrauding mortgage lenders through the use of straw buyers, this time CHARLES HEAD altered the scheme so that he would receive approximately 97% of the stolen equity, while his “sales agents” and employees, and the other defendants, would receive either the remaining 3% of equity or a salary from the fraudulently-obtained funding.
The attorney for Charles Head was not immediately available for comment. To read the full release CLICK HERE.
March 24th, 2008 at 6:31 pm
Ahh, the ugly side of the mortgage and real estate bubble rears its HEAD!
March 24th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
Well well well, if the Feds only knew how widespread this was. Charles Head most likely came late into the game and learned this trade from “pros”. Stripping equity when the market is going up is child’s play.
We have con-artists stripping equity as the market is going down. Man buys a house for $500,000. Walks away from the loan 2 months later, and forces a short sale of $450,000 to a “relative” who buys for $450,000 and walks away only to sell to another straw buyer through shortsale for $400,000 and then flips it back on the market for $480,000. There’s some pretty crazy stuff happening out there that banks are completely clueless about.
March 24th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
this wont last .. the government hates competition
get ready for tax increases to pay for all the fraud
and of course the war in iraq..
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/ten-reasons-your-taxes-going/story.aspx?guid=%7B2DA65225%2DC2F9%2D48C9%2DA828%2DD52C52621C6C%7D
March 24th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
Oh no, the barn door is open and all the cows are gone, hurry close the barn door.
March 24th, 2008 at 9:12 pm
Crooks! Hope they throw the book at ‘em.
March 25th, 2008 at 8:28 am
Matt-
Looks like a pretty multi-ethnic list of alleged mortgage criminals there. Maybe it’s not just the white man who takes advantage of minorities and poor white families?
March 25th, 2008 at 8:30 am
Time to start hanging the coytes on the fence–maximum punishment for everyone they can catch!
March 25th, 2008 at 9:46 am
They should have started these crackdowns years ago and maybe we wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in. I know a lot of managers at mortgage companies that made a ton, and I mean a ton, of money during the 2003-2005 span. They should go after them also, since they approved hundreds/thousands of fradulent loans.
March 25th, 2008 at 11:25 am
I just wanted to share that the subprime (yes subprime!) mortgage company I worked for actually always turned down the deal when there was obvious equity stripping going on. We always pulled property profiles to see how their refinance history was, took it to the Ops Manager and she immediately would say “NOPE!”.
How nice and comforting to know that I worked for a decent shop but it unfortunately still went down!
March 25th, 2008 at 11:55 am
Kathy,
Just curious. Which shop was it?
March 25th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
LiarLoan -
It was HMIC. I must’ve “rang a bell” with you!! Why do you ask?
March 25th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
As a former employer of both Head and Brotemarkle, I hope they receive the maximum penalty allowable. Both were guilty of stealing from our company.
Glad to see their actions finally catch up to them. Good job, FBI and IRS.
March 25th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Kathy- Like I said, just curious. The tendancy on this blog is for people to lump all subprime lenders together and demonize them. It makes me wonder, were there any “good” lenders, or was the whole industry out of control? The only way for me to find out is talking to former employees at different lenders, since I only worked for a couple.
March 25th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
I was just curious myself if maybe I knew you - it can be a small world in this industry and I miss the group of people I worked with! You’re absolutely right about getting lumped together and demonized - I take that a bit too personally at times because my company was very careful and honestly, were very ethical, intelligent people. Of course, t here were a few account execs that would kick and scream to get a deal through, but if it didn’t make sense for the borrower and after ALL the “homework” we did on the borrower and property and it still didn’t make sense - it did not fly!
March 25th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
Lets get real here people .
In any industry you will have the bad 5% who will ruin it for
the other 95%.
Before subprime poor credit meant no homeownership or hard money @ 17% interest .( in the 90’s )
Now its very difficult to fund a A paper loan !
March 26th, 2008 at 10:10 am
I made a ton of money off their postcard printing!!…Aways wondered how he pulled up in a $150M car. And all the employees complained he always took long vacations. Got paid right away for all. Fancy office with a 300 gallon saltwater tank too! Charles was a smoooth talker. Their checks always cleared…and cc’s. Make sense now…hope they nail him and the others to the wall. After all I struggle day to day playing the game legally…..
April 28th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
I was scammed by charles head and i am now losing my house because of that crook! Me and my family are going to be thrown on the street cause of that man.!!!!!!