California Brokerage a Scam

Normally AMG Mortgage workers were not seen without their cigarettes and their cell phones. However, this day at the office was somehow different.

Furniture, paintings and half empty coffee cups littered the office of AMG Mortgage. What could have looked liked a normal day is interrupted only if you look closely � the computers are gone, files are missing and the men behind the company have vanished. In the months that the company was running, though, more than $100 million in fraudulent loans were secured. The scam worked by collecting multiple loans on one property but scamming each lender into thinking it was the only secured lien.

So far, no arrests have been made and no names have been released for anyone involved with the company. The ex-wife of one of the owners said that she had cosigned a loan for her ex-husband, who was introduced into the mortgage field through an earlier job. Loan origination commissions were listed between five and seven percent, an amount that is considered exorbitant. The ex-wife believes that the company was starting to offer immigrants competitive mortgages, but the easy money was too much of a temptation for the partners.