6 Comments

1. 

   a neighbor on November 7, 2010 at 12:50 am

   I like the oceanfront location….but I don’t really like the house. For $3,900,000….I could buy a great home in RSF and go to the beach when I want.

2. 

   Genius on November 7, 2010 at 2:41 am

   Now you’re just being mean…

   I want.

3. 

   Jim the Realtor on November 7, 2010 at 8:02 am

   From Seattle:

   Alleging a long-running fraud involving a cash-packed safe and a garbage bag stuffed with money, federal prosecutors have asked that a bank executive accused of fraudulently brokering mortgages be forced to hand over $102,000 to the government.

   In the civil complaint filed late last month, federal prosecutors claim ex-bank executive Shawn Portmann has been the subject of a yearlong inter-agency investigation into his former employer, Tacoma-based Pierce Commercial Bank.

   Writing the court, Assistant U.S. Attorney James Lord noted that Portmann and two others with Pierce Commercial Bank’s home loans division are suspected of falsifying thousands of mortgage loan applications and, in doing so, pocketing large premium payments from lenders.

   Since June 2009, Lord argued, investigators came to believe “that Portmann and two other principals at (Pierce Commercial Bank) Home Loans had devised a scheme involving … materially false representations to induce financial institutions to fund and/or purchase loans.”

   Portmann was the loan officer on 5,253 loans, amounting to nearly $1 billion in lent money and about 46 percent of the home loans issued by the bank, the federal prosecutor told the court. Federal investigators contend about half of those loans were obtained through fraud.

   In addition allegations that he falsified application information, Portmann is accused of drawing cashier’s checks from his personal bank accounts to show that would-be loan recipients could pay their debts. The checks were printed, but the funds were quickly returned to Portmann’s accounts, Lord told the court.

   Federal investigators claim 85 checks totaling about $899,000 were cut from the account between 2006 and 2009, according to the July 30 court filing. For securing the loans, Portmann was paid at least $813,000 in premiums from 2006 to 2008.

   Speaking with IRS and FBI agents earlier this year, Portmann’s personal assistant said she withdrew about $500,000 from Portmann’s savings account and deposited the cash in a safe at his home, according to the civil complaint. Another person allegedly involved in the scheme turned over a large garbage bag filled with $102,000 in cash, telling investigators that Portmann had given him a backpack in late January or early February containing $100,000 in bundled $100 bills.

   “Portmann had become aware that he was the subject of an ongoing fraud investigation and consequently asked (him) to keep the United States currency at his home,” Lord told the court. “Portmann told (the man) that he believed the FBI thought Portmann was a flight risk and because he had a lot of cash at home, he did not want the FBI to think he would use it to flee.”

   The federal prosecutor asked that a U.S. District Court judge order Portmann to forfeit the money to the federal government as the criminal investigation continues.

4. 

   Kathy on November 7, 2010 at 9:01 am

   Nice house. Price same as lots of inland homes, and an oceanfront home will always have some intrinsic value. Seems like a pretty good buy.

5. 

   a neighbor on November 7, 2010 at 11:43 am

   Jim,

   Any bluff erosion concerns?

6. 

   Drew on November 7, 2010 at 2:43 pm

   thats the Goldman house….Divorced..Diane-York Goldman had that show on oxygen.network .all flash and no cash