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Thursday, October 30th, 2008 at 10:45 AM

$107 Million in Fraud

Oct. 30 (Bloomberg) — Eve Mazzarella was a Las Vegas success story. The high-school dropout and former housemaid moved to the Nevada city in 2000 from Seattle, got a certificate from the ABC Real Estate School and started selling houses in what would become the hottest market in the country.

In 2006, Mazzarella recorded sales of $13.8 million and made the National Association of Realtors’ “30 Under 30” list, which names the best young agents in the nation. Mazzarella started her own company, Distinctive Real Estate & Investments Inc., in December 2003. She whipped around town in a Mercedes-Benz sport utility vehicle. She planned to build a three-story office building in Vegas’s shabby downtown north of the Strip and preserve a historic house on the site by lifting it onto the roof.

Her competitors were impressed. “She was an up and comer with a brilliant future,” says Forrest Barbee, a broker at Prudential Americana Group, a Las Vegas agency where Mazzarella once worked.

The dream ended at about 5 a.m. on March 13, when federal agents smashed through the door of a stucco home on a quiet, grassy cul-de-sac looking for Mazzarella, 31, and her husband, Steven Grimm, 45, an erstwhile mortgage broker.

The day before, the U.S. Attorney for Nevada had indicted the couple on 6 counts of bank fraud, later revised to 13. Prosecutors say the pair recruited fake — or “straw” — buyers to apply for loans to purchase 227 properties worth $107 million. They told the straw buyers they would pay the mortgages. Then they skimmed thousands of dollars from each of more than 432 transactions, the indictment says, stashing the cash in 80 bank accounts.

For the entire story on Bloomberg, click here:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aGYlBrRCgtq0&refer=home

 

Posted on Thursday, October 30th, 2008 at 10:45 AM in Fraud | 15 Comments » | Print Print You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Reader Comments: 15 Responses

  1. These two plus four others were released on personal recognizance bonds and trial is pending. Five others pled guilty.

    If convicted, the defendants face up to 30 years in prison and a $1,000,000 fine on each bank fraud charge and up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on the money laundering charge.

    Jim the Realtor | October 30th, 2008 at 10:54 am

  2. Crime does not pay.

    OCVulture | October 30th, 2008 at 12:51 pm

  3. Crime did pay. They say there is only $50K left of the $8M they plundered. Either it is hidden offshore or they lived an entire lifetime of fun in 5 years.

    Her father said she is busy working on another career. Anyone want to take a wager that it will be stripping.

    LV Renter | October 30th, 2008 at 1:03 pm

  4. If she had finished high school, she might have learned how not to get caught.

    E-leven | October 30th, 2008 at 1:36 pm

  5. Why are the pretty ones so dumb.

    CVman | October 30th, 2008 at 2:14 pm

  6. Federal Agents should be going out with bolt cutters for June Reynos…..

    JC | October 30th, 2008 at 2:42 pm

  7. David Crisp was also a notable “30 under 30″

    Rob Dawg | October 30th, 2008 at 2:44 pm

  8. To me this is not sooo far off of the real estate agent wife/broker husband “teams” around So Cal who do deals together — usually targeting the first time buyer or unsophisticated borrower — and charging and arm and a leg for the mortgage side of the deal…of course, those couples are now living out of their cars and borrowing money to pay utility bills.

    BAM | October 30th, 2008 at 3:16 pm

  9. The Ventura County Star. “About 650 people registered for the 10th annual State of the State Conference at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills. The conversation inevitably turned to the economy. ‘We clearly are going into a more severe contraction of economic activity,’ said Ross DeVol, director of regional economics for the Milken Institute. ‘We have really fallen off a cliff.’”

    “DeVol was part of a panel that discussed the real estate market in California, a group that was asked if it saw any bottom to the market in sight. DeVol’s simple answer was ‘no.’ ‘Capitalism goes through this every once in awhile,’ he said. ‘We go through the excesses, and we have to clean them out. And this one is going to be costly to clean out.’”

    “Bobby Turner, managing partner with Canyon Capital Advisors LLC, said he expected to see home prices drop another 20 percent. ‘We have a long way to go before we bring home ownership back to affordability,’ he said.”

    Nathan | October 30th, 2008 at 4:03 pm

  10. What, now Bloomberg is stealing my stuff? LOL

    June 30, 2008:
    HBHS: Eve Mazzarella

    Ok, I got the tip from Housing Doom.

    Tyrone | October 30th, 2008 at 4:19 pm

  11. It doesn’t bother me that she’s a thief. She’s a hottie. I’d tag that so hard….

    greenlander | October 30th, 2008 at 6:49 pm

  12. Ummm. Mazzarella. I need a pizza today.

    Todd | October 31st, 2008 at 10:18 am

  13. Ummm. Mazzarella. I need a pizza today. ……

    Todd | October 31st, 2008 at 10:18 am

  14. I hope she rots in jail.

    JAP | October 31st, 2008 at 5:22 pm

  15. Have to agree with the greenlander.

    Give the baked ziti a second chance.

    Turnack | October 31st, 2008 at 9:46 pm

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