Convicted Foreclosure Rescue Scammer Could Face Life Sentence On New Charges In Alleged Sale Leaseback, Equity Stripping Ripoff That Fleeced 5 Victims

In Los Angeles, California, The Los Angeles Times reports:

• Timothy Barnett spent nearly five years in state prison for a 1990s foreclosure rescue scam in which he conned homeowners out of tens of thousands of dollars. Now, prosecutors say, he has been at it again, targeting residents in the same South Los Angeles neighborhood he fleeced before.

• But this time, the state is unleashing one of its more powerful weapons against him. The Los Angeles County district attorney's office has charged Barnett under California's much-debated three-strikes law. Usually aimed at offenders with a history of violent crime, it is rarely used for white-collar offenses such as fraud.

• Arrested in April, the 47-year-old Barnett is charged with 23 felonies — including theft from the elderly, identity theft and real estate fraud — for allegedly tricking five people into unknowingly granting him title to their homes.(1) He has pleaded not guilty. Some experts said the case would be one of the first times a person charged with a white-collar crime was prosecuted under the state's three-strikes law. If convicted, Barnett could face life in prison.

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• He is charged with tricking victims — who said they thought they were refinancing their delinquent mortgages — into selling him their homes for a fraction of their value.(2) By the time prosecutors began looking at Barnett again, he had bought a $3.1-million home in Orange County and three Mercedes-Benz vehicles.

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• In addition to the five cases that are the subject of the criminal case, several others are described in civil lawsuits filed against Barnett. [...] "He'd look for homes that had a lot of equity and people that were vulnerable," said Patrick Dunlevy of the Los Angeles-based Public Counsel Law Center,(3) which has filed lawsuits on behalf of several people who said they had lost their homes to Barnett. "He would bill himself as a Christian, say he was doing God's work. That resonated very well with the people he was approaching.... It was all a con, just a way to get them to trust him."

For more, see Man accused of fraud may get life in prison under California's three-strikes law (The stiff penalty is rarely used against white-collar criminals. Timothy Barnett is charged with 23 felonies for allegedly tricking five people into unknowingly granting him title to their homes).

(1) According to the story, prosecutors also charged him with burglary because he met with his victims in their homes. Under California law, a person can be convicted of residential burglary for entering someone's house with the intent to commit a felony, even if he or she enters with the homeowner's permission, the story states.

(2) California case law appears to clearly support the proposition that, at least in the context of a criminal prosecution, tricking people into unknowingly signing over the title to their homes constitutes the crime of forgery. See:

Buck v. Superior Court, (1965) 232 Cal.App.2d 153 (case law links may require free registration at Findlaw.com):

• Where a person who has no intention of selling or encumbering his property is induced by some trick or device to sign a paper having such effect, believing that paper to be a substantially different instrument, the paper so signed is just as much a forgery as it would have been had the signature been forged. (Conklin v. Benson, 159 Cal. 785, 791 [116 P. 34, 36 L.R.A. N.S. 537]; Wright v. Rogers, 172 Cal.App.2d 349, 362 [342 P.2d 447].) An encumbrance may be the subject of forgery. (Conklin v. Benson, supra, page 792.) The crime of forgery is complete when one makes or passes an incorrectly named instrument with intent to defraud, prejudice, or damage, and proof of loss or detriment is immaterial. (People v. McAffery, 182 Cal.App.2d 486, 493 [6 Cal.Rptr. 333]; People v. Morgan, 140 Cal.App.2d 796, 800 [296 P.2d 75].) Whether the instrument forged has independent value is unimportant; the crime is complete when the act is done with the requisite intent.

People v. Martinez, (2008) 161 Cal. App. 4th 754; 74 Cal. Rptr. 3d 409:

• [A] a forgery conviction can be based on a document with a genuine signature.

See More On Property Owners Being Tricked Or Deceived By Scammers Into Signing Documents for a sampling of additional California case law in this regard.

Further, California case law has clearly addressed the notion some scammers appear to operate under in that they can insulate themselves from criminal prosecution when targeting their victims simply by entering into legitimate-looking business contracts when screwing them over. See (bold text is my emphasis, not in the original text; case law links are found at Findlaw.com - may require free registration):

People v. Frankfort, (1952) 114 Cal.App.2d 680, 700; 251 P.2d 401:

• The simple answer to this argument is that "The People prosecuting for a crime committed in relation to a contract are not parties to the contract and are not bound by it. They are at liberty in such a prosecution to show the true nature of the transaction." (People v. Chait, 69 Cal.App.2d 503, 519 [159 P.2d 445]; People v. McEntyre, 32 Cal.App.2d Supp. 752, 760 [84 P.2d 560]; People v. Jones, 61 Cal.App.2d 608, 620 [143 P.2d 726]; People v. Pierce, supra, p. 605.)

People v. Jones, 61 Cal.App.2d 608, 620 [143 P.2d 726]:

• Defendant argues that the deal with each "seller" was a civil transaction; [...] Cloaked in the draperies of his corporation and pretending to act in its behalf, he boldly approached his unsuspecting victims.

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• Although each deal in its incipiency bore the color and trappings of a normal, civil contract, yet when subjected to a postmortem it exhaled the stench and disclosed the carcass of a fraud. (People v. Epstein, 118 Cal.App. 7, 10 [4 P.2d 555].) There appears no sign of good faith at any turn. Each taking and appropriation was a grand theft.

• The use of the corporate name and the promises made in accomplishing his purpose were a camouflage of such common variety that no excess of genius was required to discern the fraud. Parol evidence of all that occurred was admissible to show the intention of defendant. (People v. Robinson, 107 Cal.App. 211, 221 [290 P. 470].)

(3) Public Counsel is a Los Angeles-based, pro bono public interest law firm that, according to their website, delivers free legal and social services to the most vulnerable members of our community, including abused and abandoned children, homeless families and veterans, senior citizens, victims of consumer fraud and nonprofit organizations serving low-income communities. They are the public interest law office of the Los Angeles County and Beverly Hills Bar Associations and the Southern California affiliate of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.