Versailles in Wellington Florida is a very beautiful upscale community that has been plagued with mortgage fraud.
Over the last few years more arrests have been made in this gated community that is full of some of the most beautiful mini mansions you will find in South Florida.
Another person was just arrested. This is the third person in two weeks that has been arrested on mortgage fraud charges in regards to buying houses in Versailles.
This upscale community at the peak of the market was selling hot, hot, hot. The prices were going up daily. People were buying pre construction from the builder and then flipping the properties. Unfortunately, the project was not totally build out before the bust and therefor many people got left holding properties they could no longer flip.
When buyers ask us about Versailles and why have the prices fallen so much we explain about the timing of the market. But not only that, Versailles was ripe for mortgage fraud and that has put a stigma on this gorgeous neighborhood.
It will come back around though so now is a great time to get a home at a great price.
Marie Quintana was just arrested according to the Palm Beach Post. She is one of 25 Opa-locka residents identified by the Post that moved into Versailles taking out huge mortgages and then not paying the payments leaving the community plagued with foreclosures.
Federal prosecutors say that Marie lied to Bank of America and National City Bank by telling them she made $50,000 a month working for some company and that she had $650,000 in the bank and also that she was going to put down $413,528 on the house when it closed. None of this is true according to the prosecutors. She ended up getting a $1.7 million dollar loan.
How did Marie pull off this scam? Well, this is what the prosecutors say happened:
Wedelie Etienne another Opa-Locke resident bought a mini mansion in Versailles of Wellington. She went into foreclosure. Marie ( remember Marie is also from Opa-Locke) steps into to pay $1.9 million dollars for this home as the market is crashing.
So Marie then pockets $600,000 in paper profit and then nine months later goes into foreclosure. Her payments were $9,853 per month.
After investigating the matter the prosecutors discovered that the company that Marie says she worked for was run out of an apartment in Miami, that she actually was living in a modest home that was valued at $162,000 when she bought the Versailles home and that she had been awarded a $7,500 grant to help her buy an old condo just a few months before she bought the Versailles home.
Marie was arrested on June 23rd. The two banks lost about $1.1 million.
No one knows why Versailles in Wellington ended up being the target of this group. But the investigation is showing that at least 25 people in Opa- Locka were involved in buying many of the homes through mortgage fraud in Versailles Wellington Florida.
Opa-Locka is one of the poorest sections of Miami-Dade county. These 25 buyers all lived within 15 miles of Opa-Locke and picked up millions of dollars in home loans, the drove over 60 miles north to Versailles and then defaulted.
Most of these people spoke very poor English. There are 8 fugitives being sought right now and last week two more people from the same area were arrested for mortgage fraud for home purchases in Versailles of Wellington Florida.
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Great underwriters! I'd arrest them too!
Katerina, This is reprehensible! I have to ask, who gave these people loans without verifying the large amounts of money supposedly sitting in their bank accounts?! And I agree with Carla!
Katerina, WOW! If these people put so much energy and creativity into earning an honest living, they might be able to make real money. Oh, and I loved playing with your map. The one on Hurlington was pretty amazing.
The program that the buyer qualified on must have been a stated income stated assets. I wonder though if the bank did the loan directly or through a mortgage broker.
They have arrested a woman who worked at a bank that FAKE verified deposits. The underwriters were not at fault here. These also were not stated income loans, the entire documentation was a scam that someone who the FBI has not named created for this scheme. Also, unfortunately it was NOT politically correct to question these borrowers. When lenders are afraid of questioning too deep because they may be accused of discrimination- than something is really wrong with the system.
So if these buyers did not have the money to pay for these homes what did they get out of it besides being able to live there a few months. What was their objective?
Marcy
this does not surprize me anymore. i read something like this almost everyday.although it's harder today, for the past few years it was an epidemic. billions and billions of dollars in mortgage fraud. especially in florida, california, arizona,illinois, michigan & ohio.
Katerina, this is very sad to hear. I believe we will be haring a lot more of these types of situations as banks do further investigating.
Marcy- I am not sure except to live there for free and not pay the mortgage. There are other scams where they actually pocket the difference in the money. But I am not so sure about this particular ring.