Court Nixes Ex-Wife's Belated Attempt To Invoke California's $100K Homestead Exemption To Justify Pocketing Tax Refund Proceeds That Victims Of Convicted, Ponzi-Scheming Ex-Hubby Were Entitled To

In Monterey, California, The Monterey Herald reports:

• When convicted embezzler Jay Zubick signed over all his assets to the victims of his $16 million Ponzi scheme in 2007, the agreement meant every penny, a judge ruled Friday.
  
  Judge Lydia Villarreal rejected a bid by Zubick's ex-wife to retain a $43,000 income tax refund she had received before Zubick's conviction.
  
  Suzanne Zubick, who was unaware of her husband's crimes and has since divorced him, reasoned that she signed over her Monterra house under duress and without knowing she had the right to invoke a statutory "homestead exemption." The exemption would have allowed her to keep $100,000 of the proceeds from the house's sale.
  
  Villarreal said the time for her to claim the exemption would have been in 2007 and the tax refund belongs to Jay Zubick's 29 victims.

***

• She said her life was turned upside down by the discovery of her husband's deceit. In one day, she went from believing her husband was dying to knowing he was a thief. She received telephone calls threatening her children, whose schools had to take measures to protect them.
  
  On the advice of her husband's criminal attorney, the Zubicks signed over all assets, including the Monterra house. They were allowed to take only the clothes on their backs and one change of clothing. The investors denied a request for the children's beds.

For the story, see Zubick embezzlement: Years later, victims, ex-wife fight over money.

Bay State Homeowner Ordered To Demolish Newly-Constructed Home Over Zoning Violations After Discovery That Town Issued Building Permit In Error; Family Estimates Losses Close To $500K

In Rockland, Massachusetts, MyFoxBoston reports:

• A Rockland man claims he was given the green light to build his three-bedroom house, but now he's being ordered to tear it down because of an alleged mistake made by the town.
  
  In 2010, Robert Del Prete reportedly purchased a lot at 320 Concord St. in Rockland from his father and uncle to make it useful. The land to the back of it, their old farm, was sold to make a golf course, and other family members live next door.
  
  "As far as the building inspector was concerned it was a grandfathered lot and he gave us the permit," Robert Del Prete told FOX 25.
  
  Del Prete and his wife Sheree say they sunk approximately $400,000 into building the home on the lot and even had a buyer lined up for the property.
  
  The potential buyer told the Del Pretes they were going to use the home to house adults with disabilities; however, around that same time, the town told the Del Pretes they gave the permit in error.
  
  And now, about three years after getting building and occupancy permits, the town is threatening to tear down the Del Prete's house and says Building Inspector Thomas Ruble shouldn't have issued the permits in the first place.
  
  Rockland town officials say the Del Pretes are in violation of zoning laws because they're about 3,700 square feet shy of the minimum buildable lot size in town.
  
  The lot also needs an extra 12 ½-feet of road frontage to comply with the law; however, Del Prete claims his abutter refuses to sell him the land.
  
  "The land doesn't comply for area. It didn't comply for frontage. And the property was not grandfathered," Rockland Town Administrator Allen Chiocca said.
  
  The Del Pretes estimate their losses on the home total about half a million dollars with legal bills. They've lost their business and they were forced to move into the Concord Street house after their personal home went into foreclosure.
  
  The town says they created their own hardship.
  
  The matter will be back in housing court later in August.

Source: Rockland family may be forced to demolish newly constructed home.

Court Nixes Ex-Wife's Belated Attempt To Invoke California's $100K Homestead Exemption To Justify Pocketing Tax Refund Proceeds That Victims Of Convicted, Ponzi-Scheming Ex-Hubby Were Entitled To

In Monterey, California, The Monterey Herald reports:

• When convicted embezzler Jay Zubick signed over all his assets to the victims of his $16 million Ponzi scheme in 2007, the agreement meant every penny, a judge ruled Friday.
  
  Judge Lydia Villarreal rejected a bid by Zubick's ex-wife to retain a $43,000 income tax refund she had received before Zubick's conviction.
  
  Suzanne Zubick, who was unaware of her husband's crimes and has since divorced him, reasoned that she signed over her Monterra house under duress and without knowing she had the right to invoke a statutory "homestead exemption." The exemption would have allowed her to keep $100,000 of the proceeds from the house's sale.
  
  Villarreal said the time for her to claim the exemption would have been in 2007 and the tax refund belongs to Jay Zubick's 29 victims.

***

• She said her life was turned upside down by the discovery of her husband's deceit. In one day, she went from believing her husband was dying to knowing he was a thief. She received telephone calls threatening her children, whose schools had to take measures to protect them.
  
  On the advice of her husband's criminal attorney, the Zubicks signed over all assets, including the Monterra house. They were allowed to take only the clothes on their backs and one change of clothing. The investors denied a request for the children's beds.

For the story, see Zubick embezzlement: Years later, victims, ex-wife fight over money.

More On "Show Me The Note!"

The following is the abstract of a recent article by law professors Bradley T. Borden & David J. Reiss, and law student William KeAupuni Akina, all of Brooklyn Law School, published in a recent issue of Westlaw Journal Bank & Lender Liability (June 3, 2013):

• News outlets and foreclosure defense blogs have focused attention on the defense commonly referred to as "show me the note." This defense seeks to forestall or prevent foreclosure by requiring the foreclosing party to produce the mortgage and the associated promissory note as proof of its right to initiate foreclosure.
  
  The defense arose in two recent state supreme-court cases and is also being raised in lower courts throughout the country. It is not only important to individuals facing foreclosure but also for the mortgage industry and investors in mortgage-backed securities.
  
  In the aggregate, the body of law that develops as a result of the foreclosure epidemic will probably shape mortgage law for a long time to come.
  
  Courts across the country seemingly interpret the validity of the "show me the note" defense incongruously. Indeed, states appear to be divided on its application. However, an analysis of the situations in which this defense is raised provides a framework that can help consumers and the mortgage industry to better predict how individual states will rule on this issue and can help courts as they continue to grapple with this matter.

For the entire article, see Show Me the Note!

Toxic Land Titles & Title Insurance

The following is the abstract of a recent article by Molly Rose Goodman, Suffolk University Law School published in a recent issue of Real Estate Law Journal:

• By failing to properly transfer ownership of loans and mortgages, recording fraudulent documents, and performing unlawful foreclosures, financial institutions and law firms have generated property titles that range from defective to toxic.
  
  Those actions evince a systemic failure to comply with longstanding principles of real property law and regulations governing financial transactions. Title companies participated in title services and issued title insurance policies throughout the housing boom and although they did not directly cause toxic titles, many title insurers have ultimately assumed the risk for the bad practices that became the industry norms in the last decade.
  
  In this article, I will discuss how title insurers have exposed themselves to liability for toxic titles.

For the entire article, see The Buck Stops Here: Toxic Titles and Title Insurance.

Religious Congregation Sues Its Treasurer For Allegedly Draining $1.1M+ Of Equity In Church Property With Multiple Mortgages, Diverting Proceeds For Personal Use While Allowing Loan Collateral To Be Lost In Foreclosure Sale

In Las Vegas, Nevada, Courthouse News Service reports:

• A Lutheran church sued its treasurer, claiming he embezzled $1.1 million - some of which he spent to buy land from a distant monastery.
  
  Amazing Grace Lutheran Church, of Las Vegas, sued Gregory R. Olson and Wells Fargo Bank, in Clark County Court. The church claims it hired Olson as its treasurer in May 2005, and he was embezzling before he'd been there a year.
  
  "From January 3, 2006 to September 18, 2009, defendant Olson without plaintiff Lutheran Church's approval, drew several checks from the account of plaintiff Lutheran Church in the amount of $1,123,279.84 for his own personal use," the complaint states.
  
  The church claims Olson took out five mortgages against church property without its permission and without notifying it.
  
  It claims that Olson was involved in a lawsuit about a property he had defaulted on, and he used some of the embezzled money to pay his legal expenses. He also bought a 2.5-acre parcel of land and told Amazing Grace he used his own money, according to the complaint.
  
  The church claims it lost title to its property through foreclosure, thanks to Olson's embezzlement.
  
  To top it off, Olson bought land from a monastery with the stolen money, according to the complaint.

For more, see Lutherans Say They Were Bamboozled.

Ex-Pastor Charged For Allegedly Using Short Sale Scam To Screw Financially Strapped Homeowner Out Of Nearly $150K While Leaving Existing Mortgage Unpaid

In St. Petersburg, Florida, The Tampa Tribune reports:

• The former pastor of a south St. Petersburg church who also founded a foreclosure-prevention company was booked into the Pinellas County Jail this week, accused of swindling nearly $150,000 from a Palm Harbor woman who no longer could afford to live in her house.
  
  Demetrius Antonio Lewis, 38, of Wesley Chapel, was charged with grand theft and money laundering. Bail was set at $200,000.
  
  Lewis once was the pastor at the Grand Central Progressive Missionary Baptist Church, 1401 18th Ave. S., but it has been years since he officiated there, parishioners say. Records show he also incorporated a business called Help Is Here Foreclosure Prevention and Credit Repair, though state records show the company as inactive.
  
  The charges against Lewis are just his most recent brush with the law.
  
  Last year he was charged with tax fraud after investigators maintained he received and cashed fraudulent tax refund checks issued in the names of eight different people.
  
  And the year before that, he was accused of taking part in a real estate scam in which authorities say he and an accomplice rented vacant properties they did not own.
  
  In the Pinellas case, Lewis had an alleged accomplice, Eric Leroy Green, the head of the south St. Petersburg charity Everyone’s Youth United, court records state.
  
  Green was arrested in June on the same charges leveled against Lewis, in what was the latest spin in the charity’s downward spiral. Everyone’s Youth United lost most of its funding in 2008.
  
  On Wednesday, in a telephone interview, Green distanced himself from Lewis, portraying himself as a victim of one of Lewis’s schemes.
  
  “We just happened to be in the trail that he, you know, rode down and used us after coming up with one of his schemes ... and unfortunately implicated us as we now know.”
  
  According to court documents, Green told Pinellas sheriff’s Detective David Kavanagh the two men’s financial arrangement was set in motion after he discussed Everyone’s Youth United’s financial turmoil with Lewis.
  
  The victim was Dorothea Giordano, who by 2010 no longer could afford to live at her house at 2492 Glenpark Road in Palm Harbor, court documents show. A close friend of Giordano’s, Jack Dvorak, agreed to buy it from her but allow her to continue living there.
  
  Giordano had been introduced to Lewis, who identified himself as an expert in real estate short sales, and who offered to broker the sale.
  
  As the deal was progressing, the pastor communicated with a Safety Harbor title company, Online Title Services, which was run by real estate agent Cheryl Slaughter, the court documents state. He introduced a woman to Slaughter as a representative of Giordano’s bank, Allied Home Mortgage.
  
  The woman, identified as Tamkea Womack, sent Slaughter an email indicating Allied had approved the short sale, as long as the amount to settle the mortgage was $143,500, the documents state.
  
  The money was to be disbursed to an entity called EYU Inc. EYU was represented as an investor, but is the acronym for Everyone’s Youth United, the documents state.
  
  After the money changed hands on Sept. 27, 2010, Allied Home Mortgage told Slaughter the woman and the company she supposedly was representing, M Caster Home Finance, were not affiliated with Allied, and the money had been improperly disbursed, the documents state. Slaughter called the sheriff’s office.
  
  After the $143,500 was transferred, Green wrote checks totaling more than $10,000 — a check for an employee for $1,000 and a check of $9,700 for Construction Specialties, which is owned by his mother, records show.
  
  He also arranged for his mother to deposit $60,000, telling her the money was a payment to Everyone’s Youth United for a fair he had put on for an organization. Green put the money in his personal account, according to investigative records. Green also got a cashier’s check of $59,000 for Lewis, the documents state.

Source: Ex-pastor accused of bilking $150K.