Four Cop Guilty Pleas In DC-Area Property Title-Hijacking Conspiracy; Targeted Neglected, Tax-Delinquent R/E & Used Forged Docs, Straw Buyers In Attempt To Score $1M+ In Loot From Unwitting Owners, Heirs

From the Office of the U.S. Attorney (Alexandria, Virginia):

• Four individuals – including two settlement agents in Annandale, Va. – have pleaded guilty to conspiring to fraudulently taking over the titles of homes in Washington, D.C., without the real property owners’ knowledge, selling those homes, and keeping the profit.

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• According to court records, Jamaul Roberts, 25, College Park, Md., conspired with others to visit the D.C. tax courts to identify properties with overdue property tax bills.
  
  They would use sources such as Ancestry.com and the D.C. property tax database to locate vulnerable properties where they could take over the home’s title without the real owners’ knowledge. These homes included those left vacant, passed on to heirs after the owner’s death, or owned by the elderly in nursing homes who did not understand the transactions taking place.
  
  The fraudulent sales were facilitated by two settlement agents, Patricia Mantilla, 35, of Lorton, Va., and Melissa McWilliams, 35, Chantilly, Va., who worked at Ace Title & Escrow in Annandale. The agents knew the home sales were fraudulent and that the owners appearing at settlement were not the rightful owners. They also assisted the conspirators in hiding profits on the property sales from other parties involved in the sale through fictitious invoices to be paid at closing.
  
  The conspirators, including Michael Brown, 41, Hyattsville, Md., recruited straw sellers to sign documents and falsely represent themselves as the owners of the properties. Brown, for example, appointed himself the personal representative of the rightful owner of a property and prepared a fake death certificate for the owner, although the owner was still living. He attempted to sell the property to another member of the conspiracy for $350,000.
  
  During the course of the scheme, numerous properties were fraudulently sold, resulting in more than $1 million in actual and intended losses.

For the U.S. Attorney press release, see Four Plead Guilty To Selling Homes Without Knowledge Of Real Property Owners.