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This story just came out in the LA Times in regards to U.S. Rep. Laura Richardson’s rundown Sacramento house. The story explains the uncleanliness of the home, yard and that neighbors of the congresswoman were complaining.
The thing that stood out to me in this article is not the messy home, but is the possible mortgage and real estate fraud that possibly may have been committed by Rep. Laura Richardson in purchasing these multiple properties.
I am not sure what income she stated on these mortgage applications when she bought these 3 homes, but I would say she had to make a hefty income in order to legally qualify. I would love to review these loan documents and I suggest the Office of Congressional Ethics subpoena these documents for all 3 properties. My guess is that they will find fraud by either Richardson or her mortgage broker or by both.
What clued me into this? Check this out. There is just too much fishy dealing going on here with this York character, remodeling, investors and all this was done when our market was crashing with very little credit available for most anyone.
So how did Richardson convince York to give her a loan? Or was York just a straw buyer for Richardson or did they conspire to commit mortgage fraud together? Stay tuned folks, this one will get interesting.
Richardson bought the house in the tree-lined upper-middle-class Curtis Park neighborhood for $535,000 in early 2007 after she was elected to the Assembly. She already owned two houses, one in her Long Beach district and the other in San Pedro. She has defaulted six times on both homes.
After serving briefly in the Assembly, Richardson was elected to Congress in a special election later and moved out of the Sacramento neighborhood nearly two years ago.
The Sacramento house went into foreclosure in early 2008. Richardson also owed about $9,000 in property taxes at the time.
York bought the house in May 2008 for $388,000 and recorded the deed. He sent in a crew and began remodeling, to the joy of neighbors.
It wasn’t long before Washington Mutual took it back and returned it to Richardson. York sued, and the case was settled with each side agreeing to keep details secret. JP Morgan Chase, which bought Washington Mutual last year, said it would be a violation of customer privacy to discuss the case. The company would not say whether the ethics office had contacted the firm.
