Minister, Wife Charged Of Duping Elderly Man Into Signing Over Home; Subsequent Refinancing, Failure To Make Payments Leave House In Foreclosure

In Ventura, California, the Ventura County Star reports:

• The pastor of the Solid Rock Christian Center in Ventura and his wife were arrested Thursday for allegedly duping an elderly man into signing over the deed to his home. Alonzo Gene McCowan, commonly known as the Rev. Lonnie McCowan, 49, was charged with two counts of theft from an elderly person and two counts of money laundering in an amount that surpassed $500,000, according to a felony complaint. His wife, Kimberly Ann Oglesby McCowan, 45, is charged with one count of grand theft and one count of money laundering in the same complaint.

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• Alonzo Gene McCowan is accused of taking advantage of Leo Gilmond, now 86, by getting him to sign over the deed to his Ventura house in October 2004. In exchange, the pastor promised to pay Gilmond $460,000. McCowan told Gilmond “he wanted to buy the home so he could use it as a rental for church dignitaries and students,” according to an affidavit filed by Frank Huber, investigating officer for the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office.

• When negotiating the purchase, McCowan told Gilmond he needed a signed grant deed that “would be held in the church office solely for the purpose of verifying the purchase of the property to church leaders and to demonstrate his authority to rent the property,” the affidavit states. It adds that Gilmond “knew signing a grant deed was risky but he trusted (A. McCowan) because he represented himself as a religious man; it was these religious representations that made Gilmond more trusting of (A. McCowan).”

• In the years that followed, the McCowans made installment payments totaling $10,000 according to the agreement, said investigators. A balloon payment of $450,000 was due in January 2008. When Gilmond tried to collect it, he found his home was in foreclosure, according to court records. According to the investigator, “Gilmond was in disbelief. (A. McCowan) admitted to Gilmond that he had taken out a $420,000 loan on the property and had lost the money in the stock market.”

• McCowan offered to continue the monthly payments while he worked with the bank but Gilmond went to his son, Gary Gilmond, and attorney Greg Jones to find out how McCowan was able to take out the $420,000 loan, according to the affidavit. They learned the McCowans had withdrawn $420,000 in equity by refinancing the property in Kimberly McCowan’s name.(1)

For more, see Pastor arrested in bilking of senior (Deed to Ventura home signed over).

For story update, see Judge cuts bail for the Rev. McCowan, who is charged in theft.

(1) For the McCowans to have obtained $420,000 in refinancing proceeds, the $450,000 payment the elderly homeowner was due to receive on the purported home sale was either unsecured by a mortgage/trust deed on the home he sold, or, if secured, the security agreement may have contained some form of subordination clause making it inferior in priority to any future mortgage/trust deed (thereby enabling the McCowans to refinance out $420,000 with a first mortgage and leaving the unwitting elderly homeowner in second position). DeedContraTheft