Fraud probe figure seeks lawyer

Another local businessman has been connected to the federal criminal probe of suspected mortgage and housing fraud in Erie.

Several low-income homebuyers claim the businessman, Keith A. Rice, acted as an ad-hoc real estate agent when they purchased their properties.

Rice, 49, last week requested that a federal public defender be appointed to represent him as part of a criminal case in U.S. District Court in Erie.

Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan Paradise Baxter appointed an assistant federal public defender, Thomas Patton, to represent Rice.

Public defenders are appointed for defendants who cannot afford attorneys. Federal authorities have not charged Rice with a crime, and court paperwork filed last week did not specify what charges, if any, Rice could face. A person can also seek criminal representation from a federal public defender if he or she is part of a criminal case -- as a witness, for example -- but does not face charges.

But documents, interviews and other information obtained by the Erie Times-News reveal that Rice, of the 1400 block of Davison Road in Harborcreek Township, is among those the FBI and other agencies have shown interest in as part of the local mortgage-fraud investigation, which involves nearly 200 property sales.

Rice's request for a lawyer also shows that the mortgage-fraud probe did not end with the Nov. 19 guilty plea of Erie businessman Robert L. Dodsworth, 60, a central figure in the investigation.

The government has said that other "unnamed co-conspirators" of Dodsworth's could also face charges.

Dodsworth pleaded guilty to felony fraud and money-laundering charges in the case and is to be sentenced March 4. He either owned or invested in the three home-redevelopment businesses at the heart of the federal investigation -- A&M Homes, RLD Enterprises and K&D Enterprises.


Documents and interviews reveal that Rice was an early point of contact for many of the prospective homebuyers who purchased homes from the three businesses between 2003 and 2006, and that he worked closely with Dodsworth and others on the home purchases.

'He met me there with the keys'
Six homebuyers interviewed by the Erie Times-News, whose property purchases are part of the FBI probe, have said that Rice was involved with their transactions.

One of those people is DeShandra Chappell, an Erie woman who purchased her home at 637 W. Third St. from K&D Enterprises in February 2006.


"Keith was the first one to show me my house. He met me there with the keys," Chappell said.

Chappell said that Rice showed her the West Third Street home in late December 2005, after Chappell answered a K&D newspaper ad promising "low down payments" and "bad credit accepted."

"He showed up at the house, took me through it and gave me an application to fill out," Chappell said of Rice. "Then he told me to fax it to some number on top of the application. After that, I dealt with Bob Dodsworth."

Rice declined comment when a reporter reached him by telephone last week. He referred questions about his request for a public defender, and the mortgage-fraud case, to Erie lawyer Robert Brabender.

Brabender, who has represented Rice in the past, said he was aware that Rice was planning to apply for a public defender.


Brabender also said that since Rice now has a public defender, "I will not be representing him in this matter." Brabender declined further comment.

Patton, the assistant federal public defender, also declined comment, as did Christian Trabold, the assistant U.S. attorney handling the mortgage-fraud case.

Another homebuyer who said she had dealings with Rice was Alison Norris, who bought her house at 1256 W. 20th St. from A&M Homes in October 2004. Norris paid $56,000 for the house, which she later lost to foreclosure.

Norris said Rice worked with her to find a home after she answered an A&M advertisement offering homes for sale during the summer of 2004. Norris said Rice later showed her two homes, including the West 20th Street house she eventually purchased.

"He gave me something to fill out, some paperwork," Norris said. "He basically just let me look at the houses and told me everything was new and redone."


Norris also said that Rice was a real estate agent.

Rice is not currently licensed with the Pennsylvania Department of State as a real estate agent, according to state records.

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source: goerie.com

5 Indicted in Wide Ranging Mortgage Fraud Scheme

Budimir Radojcic, 54, Crown Point, Indiana, allegedly led a financial crimes enterprise that netted more than $3 million by obtaining federal grants and mortgages under false pretenses. The 52-count indictment also names Radojcic‘s two daughters, Suzana Radojcic and Mirjana Omickus, Christa Patterson and Mark J. Helfand.

The indictment describes how Budimir Radojcic allegedly purchased rental properties, converted the units into condominiums and then sold them to straw buyers. Straw buyers represent names of real people who have lent their names as buyers but don’t actually buy the real estate. Radojcic‘s daughters recruited these straw buyers and helped to fraudulently obtain mortgages in the straw buyers’ names while still retaining control over the properties after their sale.

Specifically, Suzana Radojcic, 30, a Chicago resident and branch manager for Bell Capital mortgage brokerage, and Mirjana Omickus, 31, Crown Point, Indiana, also a mortgage brokerage employee, allegedly submitted fraudulent mortgage applications for the straw buyers and overstated the applicants’ income and assets as well as the earnest money.

Helfand, 61, a real estate attorney who resides in Northbrook, Illinois, also allegedly aided the mortgage fraud scheme by filing the condo conversion documents with the recorder’s office.

According to the indictment, at the sales of the condo properties, Budimir Radojcic allegedly cashed the title company’s closing check and converted the funds into money orders, and Helfand allegedly obtained a deed from a straw buyer conveying all three condominium units back to Budimir Radojcic through a land trust owned by Patterson, 37, of Chicago, without informing the lenders.

Further, Budimir Radojcic also allegedly concealed his ownership of B&B Properties II, Inc., in an effort to fraudulently obtain more than $500,000 in HUD Section 8 subsidized housing grants, which he kept for personal use.

“These individuals knowingly skirted the law for their own financial benefit, which in turn, wreaked havoc on neighborhoods,” Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said. “This indictment is a result of a collaborative investigation with my office, the U.S. Secret Service, U.S. Postal Inspection Service and HUD. We have worked closely together to investigate this conduct and protect consumers from fraud.”

“The Secret Service would like to thank the Attorney General’s office for their dedication and hard work in this case,” said Special Agent in Charge Tim Viertel of the U.S. Secret Service’s Chicago Field Office. “As an agency, we will continue to aggressively investigate and seek prosecution of those doing harm to this nation’s economic and financial infrastructure.”

“As we have seen again and again, mortgage fraud and public housing fraud destroys communities,” said Barry McLaughlin, Special Agent in Charge for U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) – Office of Inspector General . “In this case, the fraud committed by this group not only harmed the Department of Housing and Urban Development; it also harmed the neediest of Illinois’ families.”

“When individuals prey on programs designed to help the community, we all become victims,” said Thomas Brady, U.S. Postal Inspection Service Inspector in Charge of the Chicago Division. “The U.S. Postal Inspection Service takes these types of criminal acts very seriously and is committed to investigating and protecting consumers and the business community from fraud schemes involving the mail.”

The charges in the indictment include organizing a continuing financial crimes enterprise, theft, financial institution fraud, conspiracy to commit a financial crime, forgery, money laundering, wire fraud and mail fraud.

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source: mortgagefraudblog.com

Three Optionable Tech Stocks for Traders

Once upon a time not too long ago, trading and tech stocks went together like peanut butter and jam. And while much of the passion that traders felt toward tech stocks has been lost in recent years, these stocks still tend to have the sort of growth and volatility that continues to make them often excellent candidates for short-term trades.

Option trading can be risky, including the possibility of an option expiring worthless if it is not sold in time. But many traders like the idea of the fixed risk involved when buying options, as well as the leverage that can make options trades quite lucrative when sold at a profit. Be sure to consult your broker to find out whether or not trading options is for you.

Nevertheless, whether you prefer options or common stock, these three 8-rated stocks are among the best opportunities for traders in the current market. Importantly, all three stocks began the day on Wednesday with 8-ratings and those ratings have held up in the first few hours of trading. This means there is still time to buy the temporary weakness in these names, with the goal of selling on strength as other traders catch on to the value of these plays.

How do traders take advantage of short-term plays like these? How do traders "buy weakness and sell strength" in these names?

Our PowerRatings Strategy Guide provides a number of excellent hints and tips for traders looking to buy in the green, high PowerRatings stocks and sell the low PowerRatings stocks that are in the red. And among these hints and tips is an excellent strategy for buying stocks like OIIM, FLIR and DLB: good stocks suffering the kind of temporary weakness our research tells us is better bought than sold.

Specifically, the strategy calls for placing a limit order for the stock below the previous day's closing price. This helps keep traders from chasing stocks, paying more for them than they should. Again, the idea is to buy weakness, not to buy strength. By using a limit order, the trader can pinpoint the price he or she will pay for the stock.

Traders using options to trade these stocks can use contingent orders to buy a call, for example, when the price of the underlying stock falls below the level of the previous day's closing price.

This method establishes our entry. Once we are in, how do we get out?

There are a variety of methods for exiting a winning trade. Our preference, however, is to use dynamic exits that take into account the market's movement when letting us know that it is time to take profits. We use a 5-day moving average of the close and wait for our stock to close above that 5-day moving average. Once it has done so, we exit at the market on the open of the following session.

With options, this exit approach remains fairly simple and straightforward. By waiting for the open of the day following the close above the 5-day moving average to exit the position, options traders do not have to worry about watching the market all day to see when the 5-day moving average is penetrated to the upside. Simply examining all positions in the hours after the close is all a trader using options need do to know whether or not it is time to place the order to sell at the market on the open of the following day.

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source: tradingmarkets.com

Two Top Rated Under $10 Stocks for Traders

Many traders would rather buy round lots of low-priced stocks than a few shares here and a few shares there of higher-priced stocks. To this end, TradingMarkets.com provides a list of not just the top PowerRatings stocks for traders, but also the top PowerRatings stocks for traders that are less than $10 per share.

While fewer of these stocks are optionable compared to many higher-priced shares, the stocks-under-$10 crowd does represent an interesting cross-section of industries and sectors, as well as plenty of opportunities for patient traders.

Both of the stocks I want to introduce today began the trading session with PowerRatings of 8. More importantly, these 8 PowerRatings have held up over the course of the trading day. This means that traders interested in these stocks likely will be able to buy them while the shares are still on sale. Of all the edges we teach traders -- both here in our TradingMarkets commentary as well as through our TradingMarkets Path to Professional Trading course -- buying weakness and selling strength is the most important. It is the only way to consistently buy low and sell high, as investing and trading wizards throughout history have implored investors to do.

(Click here to join us on the Path to Professional Trading.)

Traders can use our Top 10 Low-Priced Stocks list to find these cheap (in dollar terms) stocks. Not only is this directory updated daily, but also the list is updated during the trading day to help traders know whether or not the bargain they spotted after the close of the previous session is still a bargain after trading starts that day.

The stocks? First up is NaviSite (NAVI | charts | news | PowerRating) with an 8 PowerRating. NaviSite is a provider of application management and managed hosting software and services. The stock is currently trading between $5-6 after falling precipitously from a December high just north of $9. Although the stock is at year-to-date lows, our research reminds us that stocks hitting significant lows are often more profitably bought than sold.

The other stock I want to highlight is American Dental Partners (ADPI | charts | news | PowerRating). Shares of ADPI plummeted as news of a lawsuit against one of the company's subsidiaries was likely to be decided against the defendant. Judge-ordered mediation was scheduled to begin today in the wake of a jury verdict awarding punitive damages totaling in excess of $42 million. After reaching a high of $28.95 in late October, ADPI was most recently trading at $4.90. The stock has a PowerRating (for Traders) of 8.

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source: tradingmarkets.com

Bonds Surge, Dollar Mixed

U.S. 10-year Treasury bond prices rose today, after a choppy down week that ended on Friday. Traders bought the safety of the 10-year bond to escape risky equity markets which are beginning to look shaky again. Global equities fell last week, and have started the week on a low note. Traders are worried that economic problems in the U.S. could derail the equity markets, which has led to bond purchases.

The euro fell versus the dollar and the yen today, after some disappointing inflation data was released across the pond. The euro has been showing major strength across the board against all currencies, but today's report pointed to an underlying economic slowdown. The yen has been trading on the carry trade dynamic for the past months. The yen has been rallying on equity weakness and falling on strength. Today's yen action was choppy, and not a classic carry trade move.

Crude oil futures fell nearly 1% today, on worries that a U.S. economic slowdown will hurt energy demand. After hitting all-time record highs just off $100 a barrel less than a month ago, crude has fallen sharply on mostly negative speculation that a U.S. economic slowdown will have huge consequences for oil demand. Natural gas futures rose about 0.4%.

Gold futures rallied fractionally today. Gold normally trades inversely to the dollar and with crude oil, but today's mixed action led to a gold standstill. Traders normally buy gold on dollar weakness, and also as a hedge against rallying oil prices. Copper futures fell more than 2% today.

Grains were higher. Soybeans were up fractionally, while corn rallied about 0.1%.

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source: tradingmarkets.com