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Georgia Auto Dealer Pleads Guilty in Mortgage Fraud Case
The U.S. Department of Justice announced yesterday that 42-year-old Michael Hipe of Snellville, Georgia, pleaded guilty in federal district court to conspiracy to commit mortgage fraud. In May of this year, Hipe was indicted along with three co-defendants–Eric Friedman, Brianna Friedman and Timothy Bauer–on two counts of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and money laundering, two counts of mail fraud, and eight counts of money laundering.
According to United States Attorney in charge of the case, in 2000, Michael Hipe and co-defendant Eric Friedman became partners in a metro-Atlanta used car dealership called “Hipe Motors.” Hipe invested in the business while Eric Friedman ran it. In order to raise money to operate the business, in the summer of 2000, Michael Hipe purchased four new condominiums in the metropolitan Atlanta area. For his part, Eric Friedman prepared false loan applications and supporting documentation, including tax returns that misrepresented Hipe’s income. At the real estate closings, Hipe signed the false loan applications, certifying them as accurate and true.
In order to pull money out from the closings, Friedman and Hipe misrepresented to lenders that a portion of the loan proceeds would be used for the renovation and construction of the condominiums, even though the they were new or otherwise did not need renovation or upgrade. Then, both men misrepresented to their lenders that the construction work was to be performed by “The Fabricators, Inc.,” which in fact was a shell company, not incorporated in the State of Georgia. At the end of the day, Friedman and Hipe used the money to finance Hipe Motors and for Eric Friedman’s personal expenses. The funds obtained at closings were run through Hipe’s bank accounts and then run through Eric and Brianne Friedman’s bank accounts.
When Hipe was unable to obtain further financing to purchase condominiums, he introduced his mother and a family friend, both of whom live and work in Massachusetts, to Eric, who persuaded Hipe’s mother to act as a straw buyer on the purchase of three condominiums in Atlanta to provide additional funds to operate Hipe Motors. As you might expect, Eric prepared loan applications containing false information and supporting documentation, including tax returns that misrepresented Hipe’s mother’s employment and income. At two of the three real estate closings for his mother, Hipe, along with Eric, acted as her attorneys, executing numerous documents, including the loan applications.
Eric also persuaded Hipe’s family friend to provide him with his credit information. Once Friedman obtained that information, he opened a checking account at Wachovia Bank in the name of the family friend “d/b/a The Fabricators,” Inc. In June 2002, at Eric’s behest, the family friend purchased a home in Braselton, Georgia, for the sole purpose of pulling money out of the transaction to further finance Hipe Motors. That transaction was also financed through the submission of a false loan application prepared by Eric Friedman. Then, in February of 2004, the family friend sold the Braselton property another straw purchaser/borrower (Timothy Bauer) to obtain even more money for the scam.
As a result of the scam, lenders foreclosed on all seven of Hipe’s condominiums (with losses exceeding $500,000).
For his part, Hipe pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud. He could receive a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. Sentencing for Hipe has not been scheduled.
On August 23, 2006, Eric Friedman pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud, attempt to evade the payment of income taxes, credit card fraud, and interstate transportation of cars obtained by fraud. He could receive a maximum sentence of forty (40) years in prison and a fine of up to $1,250,000. No sentencing date has been scheduled for Friedman either.
A Ralph Roberts Site, Copyright 2005-2008 |
Hi Ralph,
I understand that you are in the process of writing a book. I wanted to inform you and your readers what it is like being a straw buyer and being scammed by someone you know.
My friend, Tyrone Pigott, a mortgage broker who worked at Captiva Financial in Southfield, MI, scammed me. Needless to say, he is no longer my friend. On November 1, 2005, I was getting laid off from my full-time job as a flight attendant and needed another source of income.
Tyrone approached with what sounded like the deal of a lifetime. He knew of a house that was for sale for $120,000. The current owner was in foreclosure. I would purchase the home and own it for only one year. In the meantime, the current owner would continue to live in the home and would pay me rent and work on rebuilding her credit. The plan was that she would buy the house back from me in a year.
I told Tyrone that I didn’t think that I would get approved for a mortgage because I would only be working part time at TGI Fridays and collecting unemployment. He told me that would not be a problem. He told me it all depended on what my credit score was. He was right. Supposedly, the loan approval was based entirely on my good credit score, so I was able to buy the house for $120,000 and I didn’t put any money down. He told me the taxes and the homeowner’s insurance would be paid for me for an entire year.
After the closing, Tyrone came over to my house and gave me the closing packet paper and gave me $8,300 in cash. He told me the money was for the mortgage payments just in case my renter was unable to pay the monthly rent. If she paid the rent, I could keep the extra money.
Two weeks later, Tyrone called and told me he had another home for me to buy—a duplex that already had two renters and was selling for $208,150. The deal was pretty similar to the first one—the tenants would pay me monthly rent for about a year and then Tyrone eventually wanted to buy the house from me. I bought the duplex. At closing, I received $5,000 in cash just in case my renters didn’t pay their rent. It was the same process as the other home I purchased. I did not put any money down, nor did I have to pay the taxes or the insurance. All that was being taken care of by Captiva.
After I purchased the second home, I told one of my friends what I did. He was shocked that I was able to buy two houses and get extra cash while I was receiving unemployment. He wanted to do the same thing. He wanted in. I called Tyrone and set up a meeting between him, his partner, Andy Pouget (who I also knew from working at TGI Fridays) and my friend. The next day after the meeting, Tyrone told me his boss, Sinjin Darwiche didn’t want my friend as an investor because he didn’t know much about him.
After being rejected, my friend did a little research and found out that I had been involved in mortgage fraud. He told me I should of never received cash back when I bought the houses and that my loan application should never have been approved considering I was collecting unemployment and had no money for a down payment.
I immediately went to the FBI office in Downtown Detroit and filed a report. I told them everything I did and everything Tyrone, Andy, and Sinjin did. They said I had to follow up with the White Collar Unit. Days later, I contacted Claudia Link from the White Collar Unit, and she told me there was nothing the FBI could do for me since my homes were not in foreclosure. The FBI simply had too many mortgage fraud cases to investigate that were already in foreclosure.
Then my friend found out from his real estate agent about Ralph Roberts and his website FlippingFrenzy.com. I called Ralph and set up a meeting, during which Ralph explained how mortgage fraud works. After that meeting, I kept getting phone calls from Tyrone and Andy telling me that they had another property that they wanted me to buy. I told them that I wasn’t interested in buying any more homes. They didn’t know that I knew what they were doing was fraud. And they didn’t know that I had talked to Ralph and the FBI. (to be continued).
Comment by DY — December 5, 2006 @ 4:37 pm
Later that week, Tyrone and Andy called me told me that I was cleared to close on another home. I found out the name of the lender and called that bank to put a stop to the loan. Tyrone and Andy found out that I had put a stop to the loan, and they showed up that night at my rental house extremely angry. They were beginning to realize that the scam was up, and I was beginning to realize just how much aggravation was headed my way.
To protect myself, I had to take immediate action. I drove down to my local police station and filed an identity theft report, because they had submitted a loan application in my name without my permission. I called the credit reporting agencies and added a fraud alert to my credit report. I called the Social Security Fraud hotline because these scammers had my social security number. I also had to file a report with the Federal Trade Commission.
I hired an attorney to sort out this mess. I had to locate most their paper trail on my own and with the help of Ralph Roberts and my attorney.
I found out that Andy and Tyrone forged insurance documents from Farmers Insurance that were presented at one of my closings. I also discovered that the title company, Amana Title Company was also in on the scam. They changed the HUD (settlement statements) documents without any one’s permission. That is how I found out they stole $42,996.00 from the owner of the first home that I purchased.
A check was issued to the previous owner but she never received it. Instead, she hired my attorney and he received a copy of her check from the title company. Her signature was forged on the check and it was cashed at a party store in Detroit. My attorney has now found out that the owner of the party store would get a call from the head boss, Sinjin Darwiche at Captiva a couple days in advance telling him the amount of the checks so that he would have enough cash on hand to cash the check. Then the owner would deposit the checks in the nightly deposit at his bank. We found out all the information from a Detective at the Detroit Police Dept. I also found out they stole a check from the previous owner of the second home. That amount is over $68,000.
I have been in contact with the MILA Fraud Dept (they are the original lender from the second home). I have told them exactly how Andy and Tyrone are doing business at Captiva. My contact at MILA told me they have spoken to Captiva a couple times because they have many borrowers who are not paying their mortgages. My contact at MILA also informed me at that time, they were no longer going to do with business with Captiva. I discovered from MILA that Tyrone sent them a forged Verification of Rent form pertaining to my current residency. Everything that was listed on that form was untrue. I never filled out a Verification of Rent form.
Another thing that I obtained from MILA was the appraisal on the second home. The pictures that were submitted with the appraisal to MILA are not the pictures of the home.
My attorney found out that no one in the office; Tyrone, Andy, or Sinjin even has a broker’s license. Sinjin had power attorney of a man’s broker’s license. That is how they were able to process so many loans.
Within about eight months of me causing trouble for these guys they closed up shop at Captiva. They are now running their mortgage fraud business through Michigan Residential Lending and they are working in Livonia, MI.
In May, I sent many letter to editors (i.e. Paul Egan of The Detroit News, Rob Wolchek of WJBK FOX 2, Ruth Spencer WDIV News, Steve Wilson WXYZ News) hoping that just one of them would contact me and be able to help me. So far, I have heard nothing.
Every couple weeks, I send Claudia Link from the FBI a letter, telling her the new developments in the case, but haven’t heard from her either.
I am fighting an endless war on my own. In the meantime, I am going through two foreclosures and my credit is ruined.
Meanwhile, Tyrone, Andy, and Sinjin are laughing all the way to the bank.
If you want to check out what kind of person Andy is, visit his myspace account at: http://www.myspace.com/andypouget.
Tyrone is also on http://www.myspace.com and his screen name is:
T PEEZY. His location is Inkster, MI and his age is listed as 22.
Comment by DY — December 13, 2006 @ 1:05 am
I received a call yesterday from Claudia Link at the Detroit FBI office. So far, I haven’t been able to get ahold of her to hear what she wants. Hopefully she has some good news to tell me.
Comment by DY — January 18, 2007 @ 1:41 pm
I finally spoke with Claudia Link of the FBI. The only thing that she wanted from me was information to update her file. She wanted to know that Captiva is now operating as Michigan Residential Lending and she wanted the name of the detective in Detroit who is doing an investigation of how the forged checks were cashed. She told me that she would get back with me in a couple weeks regarding what kind of information she gets from the detective.
Comment by DY — January 27, 2007 @ 2:30 pm
Found out some interesting news this week. Tyrone’s cousin, Ricky Peters bought three houses from Tyrone over a year ago. All three of his houses are currently in foreclosure. So not only does Tryone screw his friends over – he screws his own family members over.
Comment by DY — February 24, 2007 @ 1:12 pm
Age old wisdon: If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
Comment by JD — March 3, 2007 @ 1:20 am
Thanks for your story, DY.
I’m also in the southeast Michigan area and my neighborhood has been hit hard by mortgage fraud with dozens of homes now in foreclosure and vacant. Some of these foreclosed vacant homes are even being stripped of copper and materials, making them harder to sell, and blighting the neighborhood. So while I’m not personally a victim of fraud (my house is OK), our neighborhood is definitely a victim. So now I’m trying to figure out how to fight mortgage fraud at a neighborhood level.
I have a feeling that a number of these homes probably have straw buyers such as yourself who have been victimized, too.
As far as getting a response from the FBI goes, all I can say is that I know the FBI has their hands full with mortgage fraud problems right now, and that they usually spend more time on the bigger schemes. You might also try contacting the state attorney general or the county prosecutor.
Keep us posted on your progress.
Comment by Michigander — March 4, 2007 @ 4:10 pm
Hey Ralph,
I found out some cool things this past weekend! Sinjin Darwiche who was the main man at Captiva and went on to Michigan Residential Lending is reading this blog!!!! HI SINJIN!!! I love talking about you and all the horrible things that you have done to me and lots others.
I am excited to hear that Michigan Residential Lending is closing. Could it be because the feds are on to you??????
Comment by DY — March 13, 2007 @ 11:55 am
Sinjin – I am still waiting to hear from you or your attorney. You claim to be Mr. Innocent. So let’s hear your side of the story. Why don’t you post something on this blog if you are so innocent?
Comment by DY — March 17, 2007 @ 12:17 pm
On April 27, 2006, I sent a letter to Steve Wilson the Channel 7 Action Chief Investigative Reporter telling him my story about my mortgage fraud issues. Finally today with the help of Ralph Roberts headquarters, I was put into touch with Bill Spencer from Channel 7. It’s upsetting that it took almost a year for someone to listen to me but I can’t wait to talk to Bill Spencer and fill him in on everything that has been done to me.
Comment by DY — March 22, 2007 @ 4:53 pm
Thats awesome D… I am so excited for you!
Comment by goget'em — March 22, 2007 @ 5:20 pm
I am very excited as well. I’ll keep you posted!
Comment by DY — March 23, 2007 @ 11:20 am
The news interview went very well today.
I am wondering if anyone things that I should give Claudia Link from the FBI a call on Monday and ask her to watch. What do you all think?????
Comment by DY — March 23, 2007 @ 4:41 pm
Yes those guys at Michigan Residential Lending are all criminals. I just hope the FBI caught them before they shut down. They have been forging licenses, VODs, VORs, VOEs, appraisals always. But, they are off to another mortgage business in another name so there is more danger fraud that will be occuring where innocent peoples lives will be ruined. Don’t forget about Aoun Aoun, Mike Ilayan, Richard Twigg, Ricky Peters, and Mark Carte who are also involved in mortgage fraud.
Comment by Greg — April 5, 2007 @ 7:39 pm
How about Crystal Barry? Isn’t she Darwiches wife? She’s not so innocent in all of this, either.
Comment by JD — April 11, 2007 @ 4:31 pm
None of them are innocent. However, my friend gave me an old newspaper that included information about Sinjin. After reading the article in the newspaper called “community voice,” Sinjin seems to be happily married to Tianna Darwiche.
Please continue to keep us posted on your progress.
Comment by Michigander — April 12, 2007 @ 8:18 pm
Sinjin claims that his wife is a cop. I find that very hard to believe.
Comment by DY — April 15, 2007 @ 11:44 am
Please encourage ANYONE who has information about Sinjin and Michigan Residential to call the Wayne County Prosecutors task force on mortgage fraud and deed theft, and to make a posting.
If you used to work for Sinjin or Captiva Financial and you come forward to the proper authorities, you may still be able to save yourself. I have a feeling whoever “Greg” is that made a posting on this blog on April 5th, has lots of information. Please call Ralph Roberts. He can give you good advice on how to help yourself out of your mess.
Comment by DY — April 16, 2007 @ 11:33 am
I heard that Michigan Residential Lending was shut down for a couple days because the Attorney General’s office was in there looking at their files. They also took their computers and their personal laptops. I wonder how mad Sinjin was about that !!!
Comment by DY — April 23, 2007 @ 9:02 am
I am trying to locate a man named Luey Lazar. He used to run Equal Mortgage and he was screwed over by Sinjin Darwiche, Mike Ilayan, and Andy Pouget. Before Sinjin and his boys worked at Captiva they worked for Luey Lazar. When Mr. Lazar went out of town on vacation, Sinjin, Mike and Andy stole all his files and computers. If anyone knows how to get in touch in Luey Lazar, please blog it. Thanks.
Comment by DY — April 25, 2007 @ 3:46 pm
There is a massive mortgage fraud on-going in Southern California. Will cause over $1 Billion in damages. I personally lost over $500,000. The perpetrators are James B. Duncan, Hendrix Montecastro, Anthony Contreras, Maurice McLeod, Steve Kayden, Helen Montecastro, Charlie Choi, Paul Sluss, Rodd Leonard, Jogn Ranic, Bridgett Holbrook, and Chris Oetting. They operate under many shell companies, Stonewood Consulting, Pacific Wealth Management a NV LLC, Inland Coast Capital, The Henson Group, Success Strategies, Coast Wealth Management, Total Return Fund, Jovane Investments, Cathedral Capital Partners, Palm Valley Advisors, and many many others.
Beware of them. They have damaged well over 1000 victims and still counting.
Comment by Foolish One — May 23, 2007 @ 12:23 pm
Sinjin Darwiche tried to cut a deal with the previous owner of the White Lake house to repay her the money that he stole from her at the closing. But that White Lake lady is smart and she told him NO DEAL.
Comment by DY — August 25, 2007 @ 10:31 pm
I was just going through the wayne county land records website and I notice that, Tyrone Pigott and his cousin Ricky Peters both have multiple foreclosures right now. Now they will know what a crappy credit score will get you.
Comment by AP — October 14, 2007 @ 4:47 pm
I am an attorney working on a case involving Hamzeh “Sinjin” Darwiche. My client has been a victim of fraud facilitated by Sinjin and I am seeking any information to help my case. Are there any recent updates to the activities of Singin or could someone provide me with the name of his attorney that helped in his fraud case? Thank you in advance.
Comment by STSLAW — February 26, 2008 @ 3:57 pm
STSLAW – I’ll give you one phase of advise and a little hint to craking your case: if you notify Office of Financial and Insurance Regulation with the state and give them information about the fraud, it would speed up the process a little and get Sinjin with some civl penalties, Then once those civil penalties are given, the FBI usually comes in and gets him on criminal penalties. you would be surprised at the things the examiners in the state can do now. Give them a try – visit the OFIR website thru the State of MI and complete the complaint form.
Comment by Concerned fighter — April 11, 2008 @ 9:21 am
If anyone has information regarding the latest news, or any information that may help convict them, feel free to contact us by e-mail so we can look into your claims and work together to clean this mess up. We are not police officers or lawyers, just average people who have been scammed ourselves looking for others in the same position so we may help you get your files together, so we can all work together to get these guys (and gals)! We can keep you anonymous if you wish.
mortgagefraudhelpers@gmail.com
Comment by Here to Help — June 16, 2008 @ 4:17 pm
IS THERE ANY NEW UPDATES IN THE DARWICHE CASE?
Comment by ZD — February 7, 2009 @ 1:01 pm
As per the Darwiche case, all such above listed info is unfounded.
Comment by jp — February 16, 2009 @ 5:40 pm
Hmmm.. thats too bad. I was hoping he’d rot.
Comment by st — February 23, 2009 @ 11:40 pm
DY, Andy Pouget appears to be trying to turn his life around. He graduated from Michigan State University law school in 2009. He has passed the bar examinations in Michigan and Nevada and has taken the bar in California. Michigan and Nevada have not yet admitted him to practice law but his applications are still pending. He took the California bar earlier this year and is waiting the results.
Comment by newsguy — April 28, 2011 @ 5:43 pm