If you are going to steal, steal big is the motto of a group of developers who took 100 million dollars from investors, committed mortgage fraud, created land that was undevelopable to plan, and are now facing legal challenges.
The village of Penland was a development in Mitchell County land consisting of 1200 acres to house 2000 properties.
The developers used several different schemes to entice consumers to use their credit to purchase lots. In one scenario cited in Cooper’s complaint, the developers told consumers to apply for credit to buy 10 lots for a total of $1.25 million and promised to buy back the lots at the same price within three years. Consumers were told that these ten lots would then be developed and that they would receive $100,000 when each home sold. In other cases, developers asked consumers to buy 20 lots for $2.5 million. The developers promised to buy the lots back in two years and deed consumers an additional 20 lots plus a house, which the companies said they would then rent from the consumer for $280,000 a year as a model home. via CoStar
Talk about having brass cahones. These guys are going to end up in the scammer hall of fame, but hopefully they will get their plaques behind bars.
The developers bought 1,200 acres of Mitchell County land in 2002 and subdivided it into more than 2,000 lots to create the Village of Penland. The developers set up several companies and received “more than $100 million in loan proceeds by marketing the lots to consumer investors,” Cooper said.
Developers named in Cooper’s complaint include Peerless Real Estate Services, Village of Penland, MFSL Landholdings, Communities of Penland, COP Land Holdings, PG Capital Holdings, and West Side Development, all of Spruce Pine. Cooper also named several individuals – three from Florida, one from Georgia and two from North Carolina – as being connected to the companies. via the CITIZEN-TIMES.com
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terrible story. It's good that the attorney general put a stop to it, but unbelievable that they got away with that much money beforehand.
Great post! I am gonna share it with my own blog readers at jason.landbrokr.com ! Thanks.
I am one of the people that was victimized by this developer, their names are Tony Porter and Frank "Skip" Amelung. They are very evil people. Has anyone heard of this type of action happeneing before, and specifically what the outcome was?
We're tracking all we can on this at Penland Watch. It's a mess, a failed shopping mall in SC is tied in with this deal. I can't recall anything close to this in the business history of western North Carolina
You hillbillies should stick to NASCAR, incest and killing defenseless animals, and of course slavishly voting Republican since those guys reallllly help out the little guy. Stay away from anything that requires a 5th grade education like ‘reading’ or ‘elementary logic.’ Carry on now morons.
Is this Porter fellow any relation to Bill Porter of Porter, Keadle and Moore – UCBI's audit firm? Don't they also have a partner named Foster who handles their bank audits? Any relation to the Foster of Atlanta who was also indicted? Surely this is a concidence.
Re: Chuck U Farley
I do so hope you are not a Democrat………..although the jackass is the party emblem, we really dont want the ones like you voting. The financially wounded do not need insult added to the injury, many of whom have lost their savings, their credit ratings, even their homes to pay debts frauduently created by Penland Properties tripple mortgaging property of which the purchasers had no knowlege until the ponzi scheme collapsed
.Alack alas, my bet is you are from the state that has 10,000 last names but only one gene pool.
I would also be willing to wager that you helped hang or drown Vick's dogs.
You go bigot!
Mame Dennis
a more detailed account of the fraud in question…
http://mortgagefraud.squarespace.com/display/Show…
In the pitch, why did these developers direct investors specifically to a few organizations like United Community Banks?
http://charlotte.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/2008/ce02060…
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Neil O’Rourke, 40, of Apex, North Carolina was charged on Tuesday, February 5, 2008 in a federal bill of information filed in U.S. District Court in Charlotte with one count alleging conspiracy to commit violations of federal law including making a false statement and application in relation to a loan, mail fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud and securities fraud. O’Rourke has agreed to plead guilty to the charge pursuant to a plea agreement with the government, also filed on February 5, 2008. Neil O’Rourke appeared today, Wednesday, February 6, 2008, in U.S. District Court in Charlotte and formally entered his guilty plea before the court. A date has not yet been set for O’Rourke’s sentencing.
I used to work for these guys at the mall in South Carolina. They had promised us the world and now look at them. makes me want to say HA HA HA
I'm his brother-in-law …
he married my sister …
paul
It's such a shame to see developers taking advantage of people.
If you are that rich and that stupid…you really don't desreve to have money. The rich trick the poor out of money every day but they call it consumerism.The people who got tricked probably thought they would clean up. Lol…they got cleaned out. No tears for the wicked.
It has been about 2 years since Tony and group got busted. Where are they now? In Club Fed yet? Are they just going to sit in jail watching soap opers for the rest of their lives? While my family fights law suits to keep our home, business and life savings from the banks that were in "ca-hoots" with Pinland. Porter, O'Rouke, Amelung and the rest could rot in jail and that is considered justice. But we, the investors who trusted the banks had done thier jobs appraising the lots, still lose everything. The Attorney General needs to investigate the bank officers who knew about and approved the scam. Justice has not been served, the scam has just been stopped. There are still lots of victims suffering, who have lost everything and who will pay for this for the rest of their lives.
FYI A WHOLE LOT OF BANKERS LOST THIERS JOBS BECAUSE THEY WERE SCAMMED TOO!!!!!
TONY WAS ONE SLICK TALKER.
You're right – Tony Porter is probaly the slickest talker in the world. I also "worked" for Porter just as he was beginning this scam. Luckily, Porter saw that I was no dummy and possibly would recognize that he was a "wolf in sheeps clothing". I knew too much and had seen too much. He WAS the ring leader of the whole mess. The Amelungs were duped. Porter brought them in as a money source and ran with it. Too bad so many people went wrong due to Porter's
"slick" talking. May he enjoy his time in prison (hopefully he's there)! Unfortunately, let 10 or so years pass and he and his cronies will be living the high life again off of the money they scammed and deposited in Switzerland! Has anyone checked to see where the money went? That's a lot of green to just disapear.
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