Posted by BrendaTx on 2/20/09 3:34pm
Msg #278263
Tips On How To Ruin Your Life (by a felon in the title biz)
I found a reference to this article at SoTitle...I read it and found it to be an interesting commentary on the mental processes of people who forget their core values drop by drop until they are felons when the money's good 'nuf.
Sorry if this is old news.
http://lenderliabilitylaw.com/Title___Settlement_Services.html
Article originally published by the Minnesota Association of Realtors in an online resource update dated March 3, 2007.
Tips On How To Ruin Your Life
By Jill Lehn
In every person's life a time comes when you need to look at yourself and ask "Did I really do such a stupid thing?" At the end of August, 2006 I was forced to answer that question and I did not have a lot of time to do it. This is how it all began.
I was hard at work and getting set for another busy day of doing mortgage closings. My telephone rings all day long and I am fortunate to have many closings when real estate times are difficult so I get to work early to make the most of my time. It's eight a.m. and I am sitting in my office well on my way to conquering the day. A noise comes from the front office and the door opens. I walk out and give my enthusiastic morning greeting but it is not reciprocated. Two gentlemen ask "Are you Jill Lehn?" I say "Yes I am". We are so and so with the FBI and we need to talk. My feeling of invincibility immediately went away (it will never come back).
A second later the three of us our in the conference room and many copies of some of my best fraudulent work are being placed in front of me. "You are a very lucky person, Jill. You are being given the opportunity to cooperate fully with us at this time and maybe you could be fortunate enough to get just probation or a year in prison - no guarantees. You could go to prison for five years for each one of these offenses. We could have just come to your home and arrested you. You need to make your decision right now." I was so freaked out and thank goodness I had the ability to say "I will cooperate".
Now it is time to understand the beginning. For many years I worked for a different title company and planted everything I needed in place so I could have a title company to truly call my own. It was a lot of diligence, hard work and intelligence. Now, intelligent is an odd word to describe me when you reflect back. I have been in real estate in some capacity for the past 18 years. I have been a loan processor, loan officer, Realtor and title company closer. There is no doubt that I have a thorough understanding of every realm of real estate. There is absolutely no doubt that I did not have enough common sense to see that everything I do in this industry is easily tracked by a paper trail. Any person in any realm of real estate can say anything they like but cannot deny what a paper trail clearly shows.
Over the past three years I did about sixty deals that allowed buyers to get cash back. That is not an issue if a lender approves that but if they don't it is indeed an issue. An issue that you could possibly ponder for a few years in prison. How it came to be was innocent enough. A valuable loan officer client came and asked if I had the ability to make a deal work so a buyer could get some funds back. Very foolishly I told the truth. It was the worst thing I could have ever started for myself, that loan officer or the real estate industry. I opened a path and an assumption that I would do those deals.
It is quite easy to justify things in your head when you feel the bases are covered. The buyer is fully aware of this, the seller knows, the realtor knows, the loan officer knows. Oh wait ... that's right, THE LENDER DOES NOT KNOW. Funny how that little detail can just jump past the logical part of a brain. Now let's make everything totally clear for people in real estate:
Unless the lender knows a buyer is going to get money back on a purchase it is not okay, good or advisable to give buyer's money back.
Putting a bogus lien on a property so the seller pays it off at closing on a lender approved settlement statement and those funds end up going back to the buyer in the end is not okay, good or advisable.
Having a seller just write a buyer a check after a closing for any sort of an allowance or credit that the lender does not know they are getting is not okay, good or advisable.
Any new way you can think of to go around the system is not okay, good or advisable.
Everything in Real Estate has a Paper Trail
If everything so far in this article has not inspired you to maintain a professional, ethical business let's talk about your personal life and how being a convicted felon for the rest of your life works in regards to that. It is pretty safe to say that you will not wake up smelling roses for quite a while.
People are driven by a desire to have quality of life and quality of family and friends. That is part of the very reason that so many of us are in the real estate industry. Owning a home is a key to most people's financial and personal plan.
I had to go home and tell my husband that I received a visit from the FBI at work. Saying those words to a person you love so much is something that is surreal and worst than most things you can imagine. You have no idea what the reaction will be. The only thing you know is that it will not be positive. My husband had no idea about these deals and I had to painfully explain for the second time in one day how I did them and how it worked. For many years I felt like a genius in the title industry but could not have sounded more stupid saying these things out loud. I am so lucky to have a husband that supports me fully and has vowed to stick by my side. Here is a question for you. Would you be that lucky? And, could you bet on that?
When you have to find a way to mentally deal with a situation like this it is so tough. In my situation, I could not tell anybody or my cooperation agreement would be broke immediately and I'd be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. So, I could only talk to my husband and the FBI. The FBI asks you questions about loan officers, realtors, buyers, sellers and others. Many of these people I considered to be friends and I really cared about them quite a bit.
The FBI told me to not let this ruin or affect my life and family time. That was not advice I took at first but after getting a well deserved "snap out of it" from my husband I started to practice that philosophy. I had so many emotions. Naturally, I was annoyed I got caught and wanted somebody to blame. I had to find a way to stay my always cheery, confident, full of energy self at work and at home. You become suspicious of everything and truly sad. Every time you get a telephone call with a question, or from somebody you do not know it makes you paranoid. You ask yourself "Am I being tested, taped, set-up?" You just don't know. I cannot mention all the things I have had to do for the FBI but it opened up ideas in an overactive imagination that could be put in to a spy novel.
For five months I kept face. I'm pretty sure many people close to me did not really buy into it but I did my best. I worked and tried to pay all my bills. That is something very difficult to do when your assets get frozen by the way. Then, I got another visit from the FBI.
"Jill, we need to charge you now to go forward with the rest of our cases. You need to find a really good criminal defense attorney that specializes in money laundering and wire fraud." Until I heard that there was still a glimmer of hope in me that they were yanking my chain a little bit to get the most information they could. I have heard of wire fraud and money laundering before but had no idea that what I had done even fell under those categories.
In less than two weeks later I was in front of a federal judge pleading guilty to money laundering and wire fraud. My life went from being secretive about my troubles to public knowledge. I really did hope that I would not have to tell a soul about any of it but that only lasted for a few weeks. As you tell people that you are not doing creative deals anymore and they get suspicious things happen. Some people you term as friends are suddenly scared, running for cover and enjoying seeing you fall because they look better. Others are too scared to talk to you at all because they think you are being tapped. The imagination runs wild and you do not know what is true and what is not true.
Lately people I do not know and have never heard of call colleagues and friends to ask about me. For me that is insane. I am a person who likes to go to work and have a great day then go home to family and have a great night. That is it. I am fairly boring and I like it that way.
Strangers who believe they know me and my story takes me to where I am today. I am writing this story to plead with others to learn from this and not make the mistakes that I have made. If you have made them in the past – stop. It is that simple.
In my collective real estate career the errors that I have made are a maximum of one eight of one percent. These deals did not make me rich or give me anything of value in my life. Now, I will forever be defined as a felon and have to go about life in an entirely different way.
These are some huge burdens that I will always have:
Making sure my family is not harassed by people from this
Explaining myself and proving I am good enough to be trusted in a business relationship
Trying to find a job that will give me an opportunity
Never being able to vote again because my opinion does not count in the United States anymore
Accidentally goofing up
Helping support my family
Being able to retire
Not getting a second chance
Breaking my parents hearts
People always thinking you are a target for some harassment
Disappointing myself
My next three months to one year will be spent waiting for the telephone call to let me know that it is time for my sentencing. If I have to go to prison I will get about one month to say my goodbye's to the people I love so much. There is a possibility that I will miss some of the most special moments of my only child's life. They will be lived through pictures and stories from my husband.
Now I cannot do mortgage closings, have my real estate license or apply for a job with a criminal history check. So, I am going to advocate people making the right decision and the smart decision. Choose ethics and freedom over a life dictated for you.
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Reply by MistarellaFL on 2/20/09 3:54pm
Msg #278267
A good read and a reality check
for those that operate "under the radar", or back-date, or whatever.
Thanks for posting this Brenda.
Best phrase in this whole article is (IMO) :
<<<Any new way you can think of to go around the system is not okay, good or advisable>>>
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Reply by jba/fl on 2/20/09 5:15pm
Msg #278274
Jan 31, 2008 ... Ronald Clark Joseph, 49, of Credit River Township was sentenced to serve 63 months ... Joseph, a licensed mortgage broker and part owner of LHS, where Jill Lehn worked.
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