Houston-Area Man Faces Aggrevated Theft Charge For Pocketing $50K By Unloading Home In F'closure Onto Unwitting Buyer Without Disclosing Mortgage Lien

In Harris County, Texas, The Atascocita Observer reports:

• An Atascocita man faces a felony charge of aggregate theft for allegedly attempting to sell his home with the knowledge that it was under foreclosure proceedings. Harris County court records show Matthew Louis Seiffert, 60, is accused of fraudulently accepting payments from a non-profit organization called “Hands Across the Equator Peru” for the sale of his residence located in the 19600 block of Atasca Oaks Dr.
  
  “[The complainant] stated he paid Seiffert a total of $50,000 toward the residence,” Harris County District Attorney’s Office investigator Dustin Deutsch states in a probable cause statement [...].
  
  Deutsch says a general warranty deed was subsequently filed with the Harris County Clerk’s Office in Sept. 2010, promising to transfer the residence into the ownership of “Hands Across the Equator Peru” and its local agent, board member Douglas Ashworth.
  
  Months later, as the buyer of the home continued to pay installments on the home purchase, Ashworth was reportedly notified by the district attorney’s office that the bank had foreclosed on the property. “Ashworth stated he was never refunded the $50,000 he had paid to Seiffert for the residence,” Deutsch says.
  
  Investigators learned that Seiffert was allegedly in default of his loan agreement on the residence for “failure to provide proof of insurance, failure to pay taxes, and failure to notify First Bank of a bankruptcy judgment entered against him.” Seiffert, court records say, was also behind on loan payments.
  
  Seiffert, investigators allege, entered into a sales contract for his residence on Atasca Oaks Dr. just after he reportedly received notice of the foreclosure proceedings in March 2010. “[I] determined that Matt L. Seiffert executed a warranty deed purporting to convey the foreclosed property when he had no legal authority to do so due to First Bank being the primary lien holder on the property and having foreclosed the property,” Deutsch said.
  
  Seiffert was taken into custody July 12 and is being held in Harris County Jail without bond.

Source: Atascocita man accused of stealing $50,000 from non-profit in illegal home sale.