Washington Mortgage Broker Perpetrated Foreclosure Scam, Officials Believe
A Washington mortgage broker and his wife have been officially charged with multiple criminal offenses in what investigators are calling a foreclosure rescue scheme to get title to a local couple’s home.
According to the Bellingham Herald, citing the documents filed in Whatcom County Superior Court, Peter Torkild and Julia Torkild are being charged with theft, forgery, money laundering and illicit use of proceeds of criminal profiteering.
Abusive Washington mortgage foreclosure rescue schemes are becoming more common as home loan foreclosures mount, state Attorney General Rebecca Jacobsen said.
“It’s a problem nationwide,” Jacobsen said. “We have seen it become more of a problem in Washington state.”
The alleged victims in this case, Darcee and John Johnston, filed a civil suit against the mortgage broker and his wife last May.
In their suit, the Johnstons say medical problems got them behind on mortgage payments on the Tuttle Lane home on six acres they had purchased in 1992.
In January 2004, the suit states, Darcee Johnston saw a sign advertising Peter Torkild as someone who could help with debt consolidation mortgage problems.
Faced with the grim prospect of foreclosure, the couple contacted Torkild in his office at Top Mortgage, where Torkild formerly worked.
The suit says Torkild told them he could arrange to acquire their property at the foreclosure sale and then lease it back to them until they could get their finances back in order and repurchase it.
Torkild reportedly told the Johnstons that actually allowing the Washington home mortgage foreclosure to occur would be in their best interests.
Then, the suit states, Torkild set up First Capital Inc., a corporation controlled by his wife, Julia. First Capital paid off the Johnstons’ bank to become the mortgage holder on their home and real estate.
Torkild then arranged to have himself appointed trustee in the foreclosure sale, and his wife’s corporation was the sole bidder on the property.
With title to the real estate in hand, the Torkilds then charged the Johnstons a flat monthly lease payment that was higher than their mortgage payment had been and, according to the suit, evicted them when they could not pay.
The criminal case stems from an investigation conducted by Chuck Cross, former Washington Department of Financial Institutions director of consumer services.
In a written report submitted to the court as part of the civil lawsuit, Cross said he found that Peter Torkild later arranged for his wife to borrow $300,000 from Aegis Mortgage Corp.
The home loan, brokered through Top Mortgage, enabled Julia Torkild to purchase the Lummi Island real estate from her own corporation.
Cross reported that Peter Torkild apparently forged the signature of another Top Mortgage loan officer on several home loan documents.
A follow-up investigation by attorney general’s investigator David Cassidy found that officials at Aegis Mortgage had no idea Julia Torkild would use the loan proceeds to purchase the property from her own corporation.
In an affidavit filed to support the charges, Cassidy that the investigation showed that the mortgage loan proceeds were eventually deposited into First Capital’s bank account, but much of it was later transferred into the Torkilds’ personal accounts.
Assistant Attorney General Jacobsen said the Torkilds will not be taken into custody unless they fail to appear in court as ordered on May 4.
SOURCE: Bellingham Herald
April 22nd, 2007 at 8:06 pm
Before you jumped onto the Johnston’s extortion and blackmail band wagon, why didn’t you try to find out the other side of the story?
People like Darcee and John Johnston and their attorney, Michael T. Mumford, are simply using the media, their friends, our government, and anyone they can to further their extortion plan.
May 3rd, 2007 at 1:20 am
I’m on the inside, and I have to be the one to set the record straight because what the Johnstons are doing is wrong. They are losing their civil case, and have resorted to the media to try and influence the civil matter.
This is a sad case where Mrs. Johnston has been a paralegal for almost 14 years, and yet claims to be unsophisticated. She came up with the idea of a foreclosure rescue scam only after reading an article, and then literally making up evidence to try and make a case.
She is using the plight of real victims to scam her way back in to her house, and it’s not right for anyone to merely buy into her story without seeking answers to questions that would prove her story to be false.
She has a history of claiming to be a victim, working at 12 law firms in our small town in only 14 years, and being flat out fired from some of them should tell you something.
It’s a sad day in America when people like the Johnstons can claim to be a victim, when some of us know the real story. Isn’t this supposed to be about justice?
A couple of choice questions would unravel the Johnstons reverse scam.
September 28th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
The State of Washington has dropped all charges against the Torkilds, the Superior Court dismissed all of the Johnston’s claims to get the property back, the Johnston’s were evicted, the Court of Appeals upheld the ruling, the Johnstons have a money judgment against them by Julia, the Johnston’s wages are being garnished, the Torkilds are suing the Johnstons for damage to the house and defrauding the Courts, slam dunk.