Foreclosure Crisis Spawns Random Fraud in the Property Market in Las Vegas

The foreclosure crisis has spawned random fraud in the property market in Las Vegas. One of the victims is Wanda Murray. At one time she thought it was good idea to buy a condo in the city.

At a first glance 65 year old Murray does not look like the kind of individual who would come toLas Vegasto get entangled in a complicated complex conspiracy and then be instrumental in unraveling it. She looks at the world through a pair of thick glasses because legally she is blind.

But one morning she recounted to media reporter how she foiled the plans of a couple of lawyers and contractors who were running wild inLas Vegas. They had no idea that four elderly women refused to accept their behaviour.

Prior to coming to Las Vegas Murray and her husband were residents of Minneapolis but they frequently came here on vacation and decided to spend the evening of their lives enjoying the sunny weather away from the cold. In 2002 they purchased a condo having two bedrooms by paying $105,250. ‘Vistana’ was in a gated community that had newly come up in the southwestern fringes ofLas Vegas. In the subdivision there were 732 units.

Fed by low mortgage rates many Vistanas were springing up around the city. The boom had generated a growing market for the building contractors who wasted no time in fixing leaking roofs or defective electrical outlets that quickly showed up because of their hasty work.

There big repair jobs often led to lawsuits. A couple of lawyers were specialists in this line who formed associations for homeowners and pitted against the developers.

In Sin City when there was an explosion of housing supply competition among the lawyers and the building contractors escalated. According to investigations carried on the FBI it was in this shady environment that a crooked group cooked up a crooked brazen plan.

When any new complex was about to be completed they would purchase some units within the community and then hand over part ownership of these condos to persons who were secretly hand in glove with them and ready to share the spoils. They were known as ‘straw buyers’. While posing as residents of the communities, they took up leading posts on the new board of homeowners associations.

Sitting comfortably they would navigate millions as construction and legal related fees back to their group!