Another lawsuit filed against Crisp, Cole & Associates
BY COURTENAY EDELHART, Californian staff writer cedelhart@bakersfield.com
A former subprime lender has filed another lawsuit against Crisp, Cole & Associates and a slew of real estate professionals who worked with the now defunct firm.
The former Fremont Investment & Loan -- now Fremont Reorganizing Corp. -- filed a lawsuit Friday that builds on two previous complaints pending in Kern County Superior Court accusing David Crisp, Carl Cole and others of conspiracy to commit mortgage fraud.
The new filing contains new defendants and additional RICO causes of action as a result of uncovering more properties Fremont alleges were bought using mortgage applications with fake income and employment information and forged signatures.
RICO stands for Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, a law that allows alleged members of criminal enterprises to be charged with racketeering.
"It's just amazing. The fraud is massive, and they didn't even try very hard to hide it," James Petros, vice president and legal counsel for Fremont Reorganizing Corp., said Monday.
"They were getting straw buyers to purchase properties and then flipping them, but when the music stopped, there was nobody to flip to," Petros said.
The 209-page complaint involves more than 100 residential loan transactions that took place over several years, and the list of defendants is three pages long.
Many are former employees of Crisp, Cole & Associates or its loan arm, Tower Lending.
Among them are Crisp and Cole individually; Crisp's wife, Jennifer Crisp; Crisp's sister-in-law, Megan Balod; Jeremy Beck, a Fremont account executive; his wife, Rosalinda Beck; and a host of business associates in loan processing, accounting, appraisal and information technology, among other fields.
Fremont lists 83 causes of action in its lawsuit, and seeks tens of millions of dollars plus punitive damages to be proven at trial.
FBI and IRS agents raided 13 local Crisp & Cole-related sites in fall 2007 but have not filed any charges.
Crisp did not return a telephone call seeking comment. Cole could not be reached for comment.
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