The fraudulent schemes continues to taint our real estate market. In July the Arizona Attorney general filed suits against 11 real estate professionals, including the real estate broker of a prominent Re/Max franchise in AZ. Attorney General Goddard described this incident as “among the worst abuses of vulnerable consumers that I’ve seen in my time as attorney general”.
The real estate professionals named in the suit are:
1. AZI Rent2Own, LLC
2. RTOSearch.com
3. Tucson Mortgage, LLC
4. VinLan Ventures, LLC dba Re/Max All Executives
5. WGA Enterprises, LLC
6. William Anastapolous, owner of Tucson Mortgage, LLC
7. Amaury Leon, loan officer of Tucson Mortgage, LLC
8. Thomas Piazza, loan officer of Tucson Mortgage, LLC
9. Andrew Silverstein, former agent of Re/Max All Executives
10. Vince Volpe, broker of Re/Max All Executives
11. Anthony Zandonatti, owner of AZI Rent2Own, LLC and RTOSearch.com
According to the AZ Attorney General the scheme started with attracting investors to buy homes that would then be managed by some of the defendants through a rent-to-own program created by their companies. According to Goddard, the investors were lured by promises of easy, worry-free investment returns; most became involved because little or no down payments were required; their involvement in the transaction or subsequent management was minimal; and they were told they would receive investment income from eventual renters.
Goddard also claims many of the investors were not qualified to obtain the loans, but through the actions of several defendants they were able to secure the money to purchase the homes anyway. In most cases, he said, the investors’ loan applications were falsified without their knowledge.In addition to this, novice real estate investors were lured to these easy opportunities to buy rental properties, then the group mentioned above would default on the loans causing the properties to be foreclosed and resulting in substantial harm to the borrowers.
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