Let's hope that none of our Indiana agents got tangled up with this person.

On Friday, 8/5/05, an Indiana real estate appraiser plead guilty to Federal charges in a fraudulent flipping scheme. James L. Spicer was the appraiser in 139 fraudulent transactions, in low income neighborhoods in Indianapolis.

Spicer and two mortgage brokers bought cheap low income homes. They recruited buyers for the homes, provided downpayment money to the buyers, and appraised the homes at 2-4 times above their actual values, thus allowing highly inflated mortgage amounts. Spicer and the mortgage brokers shared the profits from the inflated financing fees, and most of the homes have been foreclosed, because the unsuspecting new owners couldn't afford the fraudulently inflated mortgages.

Some of the companies that got drawn into this flipping scheme, either unknowingly or otherwise, are:

• Promised Land Mortgage LLC (Romero Brice)
• Greenhouse Resources LLC (Romero Brice)
• Guaranteed Land Title LLC
• American Savings Mortgage
• Title One Real Estate Exchange Services Co.
• Title Solutions Agency of Indiana
• Corbin Title Services Inc.
• Kings Title & Abstract Co.
• K.A.R. Appraisal Services (James L. Spicer and Katherine A. Robinson)

So far, this scheme has cost $4.7 million in foreclosed mortgages. Mr. Spicer is awaiting sentencing, and faces a possible maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison and $500,000 in fines.