He is exactly right sort of, it requires the use of straw purchasers, bought appraisers and loan fraud to be illegal. Assuming there is a cash deal over paying for a property is not illegal. Way over paying for a property where a loan is involved is unlikely due to the fact a loan requires an appraiser. The appraiser would have to be bought or realy stupid so they are typically bought. Example of people who were caught doing this would be Par mortgage out of columbus ohio. There are many that have been caught.
“Sort of” is correct...The issue is
not the price, it’s the fraud.
exactly! If there is a loan involved and the price was overly inflated there is most likely fraud. One deal will not get you caught as it could be a stupid appraiser involved so they look for multiple deals before they start issuing subpoenas. They will get you on one deal if there is evidence of paying off the appraiser. This was so rampant in the late nineties and early 2000's I had to quit reviewing appraisals. There was no money in it because the appraisals they were sending me to review were so bad the work in detailing all the mistakes took longer than doing the appraisal myself and reviews paid significantly less than an appraisal. To bad reviews were good money if the orriginal appraiser did their job not so much if they didn't.
In that case, there are about 100 home sellers in my town that are going to be indicted.
My son-in-law is in Commercial Acquisitions where the bottom price is about 600 million.
Since the 2008 crash it is virtually impossible to pull off any schemes.