Retired attorney indicted in claimed mortgage-fraud scheme
Suspended from practice in 2004 over his role in a kickback scheme that put a Congressman for whom he had worked behind bars, an Ohio lawyer again skirted the law. He operated a real estate business before he was reinstated in 2008, a federal indictment alleges.
Over a period of 15 months, starting in 2005, Raymond Alan Sinclair’s business tricked a dozen homeowners into signing over their properties in land trusts without paying off the mortgages, for which the homeowners remained responsible, says the grand jury indictment handed up on Wednesday in Youngstown, Ohio. Then Sinclair’s Newport Investments and Newport Development conveyed the properties to others, typically through a contract-for-deed arrangement.
The scheme focused on homeowners who needed quick sales and would agree to a purchase price in roughly the same amount owed on their mortgages. After two to six months, no further payments were made on the underlying mortgages, prosecutors say, but Sinclair’s business continued to collect payments from the land-contract buyers, reports WFMJ.
Nine original lenders were left holding mortgages worth over $880,000.
Sinclair also is accused of persuading five investors to put a total of $147,000 into his real estate companies by making false promises that they could earn annual interest of more than 10 percent. He is charged with 12 counts of financial institution fraud.
The WFMJ article doesn’t include any comment from Sinclair or his legal counsel.
He retired from the practice of law (PDF) in 2012. The Ohio Supreme Court order (PDF) accepting his resignation notes that attorney disciplinary action was pending at the time.
See also:
Associated Press (2002): “Traficant convicted of corruption charges”
C-Span (2002): “Expulsion of Representative James Traficant”
CNN (2014): “James Traficant Jr., flamboyant former congressman from Ohio, dies at 73”
