Arrests Made After $1.5-million Burbank Home Sells Without The Owner Or Buyer Being Aware - Beritaja

Using clone identities and acquisition agreements and forged indebtedness applications, 4 group allegedly cooked up a months-long strategy to waste a Burbank location pinch neither the homeowner nor the purchaser being alert of the $1.5-million deal.

The group, which included a licensed existent property broker, falsified signatures, submitted fraudulent indebtedness applications and moreover discussed utilizing disguises to airs arsenic the buyers and sellers to push the woody through, according to a national complaint, and the defendants planned to pouch the indebtedness of about $1 cardinal utilized to bargain the house.

The strategy was not uncovered until aft the waste closed successful 2024 and 1 of the suspects sewage a hefty ligament deposit.

On Wednesday, national officials announced the arrests of Glenis Cardona, 63, a agent from Highland; Ivan Reyes, 50, of Van Nuys; and Arshak Akopyan, 46, of Northridge. Officials besides are searching for Basil Tikriti, 54, of Marina del Rey, who allegedly played a domiciled successful the scheme.

Tikriti, according to the national complaint, has a criminal history, pinch convictions for personality theft and expansive theft.

According to the complaint, the crippled was discovered erstwhile national investigators came crossed a connection about it while pursuing a abstracted but related owe fraud scheme.

In that case, an FBI supplier discovered suspicious WhatsApp and Signal messages. The proprietor of the phone, according to the complaint, is now considered a cooperating witnesser for national agents.

Burbank Police already had been investigating, according to the indictment, aft the proprietor told constabulary his location had been sold without his knowledge. The expected purchaser besides said pinch Burbank Police, telling officers they were unaware of the acquisition and now were successful indebtedness for a $975,000 mortgage.

FBI agents discovered the cooperating witnesser had been successful interaction pinch a Signal personification identified arsenic “GDL.” The 2 discussed respective properties, including whether they had immoderate liens and whether the 2 could get beingness entree to them.

Then connected Oct. 31, 2023, “GDL” sent the witnesser the reside to the Burbank house, the owner’s name, societal information number, day of birth, driver’s licence number and a connection that the spot was “ready to go...My boy has the keys.”

The defendants besides discussed trying to enlistee personification to airs arsenic the purchaser and fretted complete whether they could find personification who looked aged capable to play the portion successful beforehand of a notary.

“I don’t person aged 65 yr aged guys astatine my disposal to play ball,” Tikriti messaged the cooperating witnesser astatine 1 point. “I’m not a casting director.”

Tikriti suggested he could spray the person’s hairsbreadth grey and springiness him a cane truthful he could look to beryllium successful his 60s.

The waste closed connected Jan. 3, 2024, according to the complaint, and connected the aforesaid day, Cardona’s U.S. Bank relationship received a $60,000 ligament transfer. Cardona past made respective ample purchases, spending much than $18,000 astatine a car dealership and thousands of dollars astatine Target, TJ Maxx, Coach and Nordstrom Rack stores.

Money from the indebtedness besides was sent to various third-party entities truthful the different defendants could get their cut, according to prosecutors. But the strategy began to autumn isolated erstwhile labor of those operations returned immoderate of the ligament transfers and began to raise concerns about imaginable fraud.

Some of the money, for example, was sent to a institution that purchases gold, but an worker became suspicious erstwhile personification called and said they would beryllium picking up the gold. The personification called from a number registered to the Burbank homeowner but identified themselves by a different name.

The worker past called the homeowner, who alerted the worker to the imaginable fraud.

The title institution that insured the transaction besides flagged the purchase.

The defendants look up to 30 years successful situation if convicted.