Oregon Equity Stripper Cops Plea; Now Faces Foreclosure Himself

In Portland, Oregon, Willamette Weekly reports:

• Larry Jason Somera did something a week before Christmas that rarely happens in Multnomah County Circuit Court—he pleaded guilty to a mortgage-related crime.

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• Somera, a 35-year-old former mortgage broker, first attracted the attention of law enforcement after two 2006 home purchases from the elderly and disabled. In one deal, he and a partner bought the 1,300-square-foot Northeast Portland home of Evelyn Allen, a 73-year-old blind woman who faced foreclosure. They made a gross profit of $155,000, most of which they paid to Allen only after Allen’s family sued.

• That same year, Somera and a partner bought the St. Johns home of an 80-year-old Portland man suffering from dementia. They paid $125,000, $45,000 less than it was worth, according to court records. After the man’s financial adviser challenged the purchase in court, Somera and his partner gave the home back.

• Shen ultimately charged Somera with first-degree forgery, a Class C felony, for concocting a bogus rental agreement as collateral for the loan on a third property. [...] Somera, whose pitch in 2006 to Allen was rescue from foreclosure, now also faces the loss of his home.

For more, see Grounded Vulture (One “foreclosure-rescuer” pleads guilty in 2008. Will there be more in 2009?).

For an earlier story on this case, see Rescue Me (A Portland Cop is targeting foreclosure vultures).