Charges filed in bizarre fraud case

POLSON — With the economy and housing market down, foreclosed homes have become a common sight around the country.

In Lake County, approximately 57 houses were foreclosed upon in 2009, a 300 percent increase over 2008, according to Todd Battista at Lake County Abstract & Title in Polson.

In most cases, these homes stay empty until someone legally buys it, usually from a bank or mortgage company.

In Polson, a drifter from out-of-town allegedly tried to claim some area-foreclosed homes as his own, an act that FBI statistics show may be part of a large increase in mortgage scams across the nation.

Brent Arthur Wilson is being held at the Lake County Jail on $100,000 bond after allegedly filing fraudulent documents to try and claim a home in Jette Meadows and two in the city of Polson as his property.

Wilson, 53, is being charged by the Lake County Attorney’s Office with felony theft, burglary, felony deceptive practices, felony tampering with public records or information, criminal mischief, false swearing and criminal trespass to property. In his initial appearance in Justice of the Peace Chuck Wall’s court, Wall said Wilson was distant, gave his address as a post office in Washington, D.C. and refused to sign his initial appearance sheet.

The story gets even stranger.

Wilson’s actions first came to light in August 2009. Ed McCurdy, a real estate agent with Prudential in Polson, went to check on one of his listed properties, 2945 Meadow Lane, in Jette Meadows. McCurdy noted that his “For Sale” signs, valued at $200 or $300, had been removed, the locks to the property had been changed and a notice with a phone number was posted claiming the house had been foreclosed upon on Aug. 7, 2009.

Suspicious, McCurdy began investigating the issue. When McCurdy attempted to call the number left at the property, he received no answer and finally left a message saying he would call every five minutes until he spoke with someone.

“He took that as a threat and called my managing broker and said he was going to get a restraining order against both of us,” McCurdy said, referring to who he believes was Wilson.

McCurdy believes Wilson was targeting houses that had been foreclosed upon and that were owned by federal mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. There is a lag-time between when the house is foreclosed upon and when it is assigned back to the bank, and McCurdy said he believes those were the houses Wilson chose to try and claim.

“I’d had a lot of experience with the Meadow Lane property, and it was already for sale before it went into foreclosure,” McCurdy said. “He missed the lag time and I knew there was no way this guy had any right to be on the property.”

At that point, McCurdy notified the police. Lake County Sheriff’s Office detectives Rick Lenz and Dan Yonkin were assigned to the case. After a preliminary investigation and speaking with McCurdy, the detectives felt they had enough evidence to file an $100,000 felony arrest warrant, which they did, on Sept. 4, 2009. Wilson was picked up on Sept. 15 in California, Lenz said. An extradition fight by Wilson delayed his return to Lake County until Jan. 31.

“These are real estate transactions and the average detective hasn’t been schooled in that,” Yonkin said. “It’s kind of new territory for us because it’s not the average crime.”

In an interview with the Leader from the Lake County Jail, Wilson claimed to not know what he is being held for, and that he is simply “waiting for the chips to fall.”

“I’ve got 1,000 questions myself,” Wilson said.

The filed charging documents allege that on Aug. 7, 2009, Wilson went to the Lake County Clerk and Recorder’s Office and filed several fraudulent documents. One, a “title to land,” contains several phrases not normally found on a legitimate document, according to Deputy Clerk Carla Buys.

It claims that “brent arthur: family wilson [sic]” is given the Jette Meadows land “forever, or until the return of yashua messiah, ah-mein.” Above the signature, which is almost completely covered by a thumb print, is written “in witness whereof, the ‘heir and assign’ and authorized agent, a man on the land, subject only to his creator, who has prepared this record, has hereunto set his seal this forth [sic] day of august [sic] two thousand nine, c.e.”

The charging document notes that “the notary does not satisfy notary requirements in that it does not list the notary’s name, expiration of their notary power, or their location. Instead, the notary on the document is an illegible signature and below it reads ‘county notary my office expires on my last breath.’” In addition to allegedly filing fraudulent documents, Wilson also tried to alter the plat book record, according to County Plat Supervisor Susan Newton.

“He was quiet and low-key,” she said. “I think he wanted to keep it that way.”

Wilson came to the Clerk and Recorder’s Office frequently, employees said, but his behavior didn’t really attract attention.

“He always paid cash, which after a while we all thought was kind of strange,” Buys said, noting that most of his filing charges were upwards of $100 each.

Kyle Karstens, a title officer with Lake County Abstract & Title in Polson, said the Recorder’s office has no choice but to file the documents, whether they believe them to be fraudulent or not.

“It does cause me a great deal of concern, especially the deed, when someone tries to sell or keep something that doesn’t belong to them,” Karstens said.

While this may seem like a seemingly victimless crime, McCurdy said that is not the case. Instead, filing fraudulent documents permanently “clouds” the title of a property, creating issues for subsequent owners.

“When people go to buy the property, the title will say this guy has an interest in the property,” McCurdy said, technically meaning that he could come back and claim the property. “He proved anybody can file and record a document on someone else’s property, whether it’s legal or not.”

The FBI has seen that scams like this, known broadly as mortgage fraud, are increasing nationwide.

The FBI’s Web site claims that approximately 37 percent of these crimes occur in the west, the highest amount in the nation. In fiscal year 2008, the FBI documented 63,173 reports of such crimes, a number that has steadily increased over the past few years.

Karstens said this was the first he’d heard of this type of incident in Lake County, but that it requires increased vigilance.

“White collar crime is increasing,” Karstens said. “In this downturn economy, people don’t necessarily rob with guns anymore. Everyone should be careful.”