For the grand scale of the crime, Michael Schneider gets the notoriety. For the execution of 173 felony counts of real estate fraud he failed miserably. The real estate broker from Hillsborough, California committed the typical real estate fraud scams of selling homes to multiple buyers as investments, failing to pay mortgages on the properties, and played a ponzi scheme with the money. These days I could report someone facing serious jail time every day for these crimes.
What the interesting twist is that he committed these crimes to such a scale while working out of the most community in the country with the highest household income, Hillsborough. There is a symmetry to the scam though. If he had aimed to low these big earners would never have fallen for it, but instead using the cache of the Hillsborough address he reeled in nearly 43 million in investments while the scam was intact.
Michael Schneider, 44, pleaded no contest Tuesday to 173 felony counts, including elder financial abuse, embezzlement, grand theft, forgery and residential burglary, in a case that involved charges filed jointly by the district attorney’s offices of Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties.
More than 60 people fell victim to Schneider, some of whom lost their life savings, Santa Clara County prosecutors said. Deputy District Attorney Dale Lohman called it one of the most prolific fraud cases she had ever seen. “I haven’t researched it by dollar amount, but it’s got to be way up there,” Lohman said. via The San Francisco Gate
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