In 2006, Slavic Village residents suspected something was wrong with all the quick purchases and overpriced resales of homes in their neighborhood, so neighbors organized to find the culprits. The councilman built lists of suspicious sales from the Sunday papers. College kids home for summer break combed through dusty piles of files from the city's Department of Building and Housing. Finally one name emerged, that of Mark Kellogg, now 39, who owned a Slavic Village hot dog stand and was a licensed mortgage broker. Cuyahoga County's Mortgage Fraud Task Force announced an indictment against Kellogg and two associates in October 2008. More charges against more buyers and sellers came six months later. All told, Kellogg convinced subprime lenders to cough up $5.8 million dollars in loans to help investors buy and sell 78 houses. Nearly all of them have gone into foreclosure. Here's Cleveland City Councilman Tony Brancatelli on Kellogg's guilty plea.
Tony Brancatelli: There is no amount of jail time that can justify the amount of damage these people caused in our community. But at least it does send a strong message that we're going to stand up for our neighborhood.
Kellogg faces a maximum sentence of 106 years in prison and $6.6 million in fines. Sentencing is scheduled for mid-May. In a separate case, Kellogg also faces charges from last fall, when he was arrested and accused of breaking into a Slavic Village house to steal the pipes.