Pair Held On $200K Bond For Allegedly Pocketing Proceeds On "Contract For Deed" Home Sales Without Making Payments On Existing Liens

In Midland, Texas, the Midland Reporter Telegraph reports:

• The second man allegedly involved in a real estate fraud scheme targeting homeowners around Midland turned himself in to authorities [...]. Marcus Jacob Rosenberger, 33, was charged with two counts of forgery after police said he and his business partner Jason Heath Morrison, also 33, defrauded several individuals by purchasing their residences from them and never making payments on their mortgages.

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• Morrison and Rosenberger [] signed a [purchase] contract with [one] homeowner stating they would continue making future payments on the mortgage until the home was sold, authorities said. Then after the home sold, Vanguard Properties would pay off the lien on the residence and keep the remaining funds from the sale. However, the affidavit stated that was not the case.

• Rosenberger claimed to have sold the house to a woman in July after he took possession of it from the victim on June 29, 2009. The selling price of the home was for $110,000, investigators wrote. However, Vanguard Properties never made any payments to the victim's bank or his mortgage and the $68,000 that he owed. According to police, the woman who had purchased the home had made six monthly payments to Vanguard Properties and a down payment and the money never went toward the bank for the mortgage.

• The homeowner returned home in December to find he was $13,000 behind in payments, the affidavit stated. Police believe Morrison and Rosenberger took "possession of the property fraudulently;" no contracts of the sale or deeds were ever filed or recorded through the Midland County Courthouse either. The homeowner is one of four police said were victimized by both Morrison and Rosenberger.

• Morrison was arrested [] by investigators; both men remained locked up as of press time at the Midland County Detention Center on total bonds of $200,000 each.

For more, see Second fraud suspect turns self in.