This is a story of Sushama Lohia, Surpiti and Vijay Soni and Suniti and Dinesh Shah of Santa Ana, California.
The story begins several years ago, when Vijay and Supriti Soni were found guilty of forgery, falsifying real estate documents, identity theft and grand theft. According to court documents, the Sonis "obtained confidential information from various people – one of whom worked for Vijay and the rest who were clients for properties or mortgages – and then used it to acquire furniture, loan proceeds and commissions, real estate deeds and commissions, a Mercedes Benz automobile and cash for themselves." [link]
Well, they did not stop there.
In July 2007, Vijay and Supriti Soni of Corona del Mar paid $440,000 for a home at 2129 W. Civic Center Drive in Santa Ana.
Five weeks later, they resold the house to Javier Hernandez – the family gardener and handyman – for $660,000. That’s a 50 percent gain in 38 days – at a time when real estate prices in Santa Ana were plunging.
But the lender that financed both mortgages – Washington Mutual Bank – took a bath. In March of this year Hernandez’s loan went into default and in July the bank foreclosed. On the trustee’s deed, the bank listed the home’s value at $377,137 – $220,000 less than the outstanding loan.
Records show that Washington Mutual, America’s largest savings and loan and one of its most precariously perched lending institutions, financed at least 43 mortgages worth $24.5 million on properties bought and sold by members of the Soni family since early 2007. [link]
This was after they were part of a story titled A family that flips real estate together
Without sounding communalist….can we put this to Gujju business acumen gone crazy?
