A Canadian scam first,
Sales rep charged with theft
A Brampton, Ont. real estate sales rep has been arrested and charged with two counts of break, enter and theft. Halton Regional Police say a man entered a home for sale on Pringle Avenue in the Town of Milton, under the guise of showing it to a potential buyer. He was observed entering and leaving the premise unaccompanied, police say. The homeowners returned to find several pieces of jewellery missing and contacted police.
Investigators subsequently determined the same agent was responsible for a similar entry on McCandless Crescent on March 18, say police. They arrested the sales rep and a search of his vehicle resulted in the recovery of several pieces of stolen jewellery. Shalinder Kapoor, 38, of HomeLife/Diamonds Realty has been charged.
Shalinder Kapoor The Realtor® (even Realtor® “trademark” could be a scam … Coming up next – “Why Realtor® trademark is likely a scam”).
Now the bigger scam down south …
San Jose real estate agent who scammed friends and family gets 15-year sentence
Eric Kurhi @ [email protected]
SAN JOSE — A real estate agent has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for using a Ponzi scheme to bilk friends and family out of more than $2 million, which she spent on luxury cars, expensive clothes and fancy furniture, according to prosecutors.
Jill Marie Silvey, 51, was convicted earlier this year in Santa Clara County Superior Court of 52 fraud-related felonies. Her scam involved convincing at least 20 investors to lend their money to homeowners whom Silvey had dealt with before. The homeowners would then send the investors monthly interest payments.
Jill Marie Silvey
But the homeowners knew nothing of the supposed transaction — Silvey would take the cash herself and in true Ponzi fashion, use money from later victims to make payments to those she’d brought into the fold earlier.
“The real loss to the victims was the emotional pain they suffered at the hands of Ms. Silvey,” said deputy district attorney Katharina Wells in a statement. “Jill Silvey victimized her own family and close friends, stealing over $2 million to keep her Ponzi scheme going while spending the victims’ life savings on lavish personal items.”
At her sentencing, Silvey was also ordered to pay restitution to her victims.
The scam came to light when investors, frustrated by late payments, directly contacted the homeowners and learned they had no knowledge of ever getting a loan. The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office Real Estate Fraud unit began an investigation
in 2012, and believe Silvey had been running the scam since 2005.
Silvey was arrested in June of last year.
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