Real Estate Con Man Phoenix Arizona

No Ticky, No Laundry

Posted on February 19, 2009 in Arizona Law Regarding Business and Real Estate

At the law firm of William A. Miller in Phoenix Arizona, we take Arizona-granted licenses as a privilege. You cannot build a house without a contractor’s license. You cannot give legal advice without a law degree and license to practice law. Good luck suing in this State if you do not possess one. If you build a house without proper authority, good luck suing the homeowner, our Courts will toss you out.

The same goes for trying to sell beers at a burger joint, no license, no beers.

We just filed a multi-million dollar suit against a group of entrepreneurs who bought bank loans with unused lines of credit for pennies on the dollar. Now they are trying to foreclose. The law does not allow such and over the next few weeks, we will be reminding the Court and the entrepreneurs that acting like a bank requires a license! We’ll keep you posted on the results.

I know I am aging myself but like Bob Hope used to say in the “Road Show” flicks, “no ticky, no laundry.”

If some non-licensed group has hampered you, be it selling you worthless stock without a securities license or giving you liposuction without a medical license, give us a call to discuss your rights. Our number is 480.948.3095.

 

Deep Pockets

Posted on February 4, 2009 in Arizona Law Regarding Business and Real Estate

When I broke the NCFE (http://articles.latimes.com/2008/nov/01/business/fi-poulsen1) fraud back in 2002, the first thing I did was sue the third-party professionals, the lawyers, accountants and financial firms, who helped NCFE commit their crimes. My favorite law school professor Charles Ayers always said, “go for the deep pockets.” Well, it is now time for the Minnesota accounting firm of McGladrey & Pullen to give back some of the money they got for helping Bernie Madoff. The firm has just been sued in both Madoff’s and Tom Petters’ Ponzi schemes.

Last week, an investment fund that placed $280 million with Madoff sued in Connecticut state court saying its auditors — Goldstein Golub Kessler in 2006 and McGladrey & Pullen in 2007 — failed to detect the fraud. And, in October, the Ellerbrock Family Trust filed a similar suit in federal court in Minnesota saying that McGladrey & Pullen failed to conduct thorough audits or take other actions that would have uncovered alleged fraud by Petters’ companies.

Arizona Real Estate Con Men

Posted on November 3, 2008 in Broker Liability in Phoenix Arizona

Have you been the victim of a “real estate con”? A real estate con is normally set up and performed by a confidence man. The first known usage of the term “confidence man” was in 1849; it was used by the press during the trial of William Thompson. Thompson chatted with strangers until he asked if they had the confidence to lend him their watches, whereupon he would walk off with the watch; he was captured when a victim recognized him on the street.

All kinds of real estate cons have been thought up. From the simple, such as selling lots two, three or four times, all the way to securities cons where the unsuspecting is led into investing in bogus real estate developments and deeds of trust.

Seldom will you meet a nicer, more friendly person than a con artist. That is how he or she gets your confidence. I once sued a prominent Phoenician who was selling Grand Canyon lots to Europeans. One problem, he did not own them. Nor could anyone find them. His con worked for years. He protected himself by donating to politicians and charity. I felt guilty suing him. Imagine that, he almost had me.

Arizona and Phoenix are ripe with these cons. Examples of cases I have worked on will be posted soon.

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