Judge Slaps Unscrupulous Property Investors With Multi-Million-Dollar Fines
Posted: Monday, June 21, 2010
Download MP3A Cleveland judge has fined two South Carolina real estate companies more than 13 million dollars for their continued failure maintain homes they bought for a small fraction of their former value. ideastream®’s Dan Bobkoff reports.
Interstate Investment Group and Paramount Land Holdings, both of Gilbert, South Carolina – are typical of companies that bought properties in Cleveland in bulk to make a profit on fast turnaround, inevitably leaving some abandoned. That’s according to Cuyahoga County Treasurer Jim Rokakis, who has for years been tracking and fighting the foreclosurer crisis. He applauds Housing Judge Raymond Pianka’s handing down the maximum – more than 13 million dollars in fines on just over a dozen properties - for the companies’ long term failure to maintain the homes and pay property taxes.
Rokakis: “They feel there are no consequences to what they do. They can come in, buy property, not pay taxes, not repair the property, and what are you gonna do about it? And I guess Pianka took them up on the “what are you gonna do about it” challenge.”
In his sentencing order, Judge Pianka acknowledges the fines are substantial. He cites the companies’ offer to pay only 100 thousand dollars to cover all offenses, back taxes and demolition costs, and says it amounts to little more than an offer to buy its way out of meeting its legal obligations. He says the multimillion-dollar fine is intended to set an example to other unscrupulous companies.
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Economy, Facing the Mortgage Crisis, Government/Politics, Other, Courts/Crime - Fire/Law Enforcement
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