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- Written by: Lake County News Reports
Brown's agents arrested Michael McConville, and two of his associates for their roles in an alleged “criminal conspiracy” to steal nearly $1 million from borrowers seeking to refinance their homes.
McConville and his co-conspirators allegedly lured dozens of borrowers into refinancing home loans by falsely promising low interest rates and brokers' fees, and other attractive terms.
They then negotiated different terms with lenders, forged the victims' signatures on the final loan documents and collected hefty brokers fees – ranging from $20,000 to $57,000 – that were never disclosed. Only when the borrowers received true copies of the loan documents after the refinance did they discover that their names had been forged.
In total, defendants are alleged to have stolen more than $950,000 from more than 70 borrowers, leaving victims holding $30 million in loans with terms they did not agree to.
Brown recently sued Michael McConville and his brother Sean for their part in the "Property Tax Reassessment" scam which targeted Californians looking to lower their property taxes, as Lake County News reported earlier this year.
Tens of thousands of mailers were sent out that featured official-looking logos and demanded hundreds of dollars in payments for property tax reassessment and reassessment appeal services. Some of those mailers ended up in the hands of Lake County residents.
The statements warned homeowners that if payments were not received by the "due date" they faced late fees or would have their file marked "non-responsive" or "ineligible for future tax reassessments."
Jim Campbell, Lake County's deputy county assessor, helped get the word out, and said for a time it was the “talk of the assessor world,” but the scam appeared to have died down once the community was notified.
In this most recent action, Brown filed 44 criminal charges against:
Michael McConville, 39, of Simi Valley, sales manager of ALG Inc, a Los Angeles based mortgage company. McConville was arrested at his home late Thursday. He is being held in Ventura County Jail on $2 million bail.
Garrett Holdridge, 23, of Palmdale, California and Texas, loan officer for ALG Inc. Holdridge is being held at the Los Angeles County Jail (Palmdale Station) on $2 million bail.
Alan Ruiz, 28, of Huntington Beach, a loan officer for ALG Inc. Ruiz was arrested at his home late Thursday. He is being held at Orange County Sheriff's Main Jail on $2 million bail.
The charges include 28 counts of grand theft, 14 counts of forgery, one count of elder abuse, one count of conspiracy to commit grand theft; three special allegations of aggravated white-collar crime in excess of $500,000; and taking in excess of $3.2 million.
“After victims signed their closing papers, McConville and his associates doctored the loan documents, forged borrowers' signatures and slipped in hefty fees that were never disclosed,” Brown said. “This was not some clerical error but a criminal conspiracy to steal nearly a million dollars from borrowers.”
From April 2007 to October 2008, McConville and his associates provided homeowners closing documents bearing terms promised, but which the lender never approved. After homeowners signed those documents, key pages were removed and replaced with pages bearing the terms that the lender had actually agreed to. The homeowners' signatures were forged on the replacement pages, and ALG forwarded the forged documents to the escrow company.
Homeowners only discovered they had been defrauded when they received the final loan documents with the true terms and saw their signatures forged on disclosures of closing costs, Truth-in-Lending disclosures, loan applications and other documents. ALG often collected between $20,000 and $30,000 in undisclosed broker fees. In one transaction, they collected over $57,000 in such fees.
As a result of this scheme, homeowners suffered devastating financial losses. Some were forced to sell their homes, come out of retirement, or tap into retirement savings. Others paid significant prepayment penalties – in one case, more than $21,000. Borrowers often never received the significant amounts of cash-out they were promised.
In one case, Michael McConville promised one couple a 5.5 percent fixed interest rate, cash-out of $58,000 and $4,500 in closing costs. Only after they signed the documents, they realized their copy did not include the pages detailing the key terms of the loan.
The couple soon received loan documents from Indymac Bank and discovered their signatures had been forged and they had received a 7 percent interest rate, no cash-out, and over $50,000 in closing costs, including a $42,000 origination fee paid to ALG.
ALG contacted a 65-year-old retired woman in July 2007 and promised her a 30-year fixed rate loan at 5.25 percent. A month later, a notary had arrived at the victim's house with loan documents reflecting the 5.25 percent fixed interest rate.
After closing, the victim discovered she had received an adjustable rate mortgage with an initial rate of 8.65percent, a $22,000 origination fee, and $2,230 in miscellaneous fees. The victim's signature had been forged on most of the documents.
- Details
- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
The US Department of Agriculture Rural Development grants, totaling $178,000, will provide much-needed new equipment for the district – from new air tanks and breathing apparatus to increase firefighter safety to a new water tender.
Northshore Battalion Chief Pat Brown called the grants a “major coup.”
He said the district applied for the grants in April, and received notice on June 30 that they had received the $100,000 grant for the water tender and on July 6 that they received the $78,000 grant for the breathing apparatus.
The fire districts along the Northshore consolidated into one agency, Northshore Fire Protection District, in a three-year process completed in November of 2006, said Chief Jim Robbins.
The result is a small rural agency with 72 volunteers and 17 paid staff – some of them part-time – that covers 350 square miles or about 228,300 acres, much of it wildland. It's the third largest fire district in California, Robbins said.
Northshore Fire has an annual budget of about $2.3 million, Robbins said. Brown said the district usually receives about two to three grants a year.
“It's incredible the amount of land they cover,” said Sarah Pursley, spokesperson for USDA Rural Development's California office.
Because of the district's size, Brown added, “We're going a lot of places now.”
That, of course, puts wear and tear on the district's equipment, which the grant will help address.
On Tuesday morning, Brown, Robbins, and firefighters Odell Landers and Chrissy Pittman were busy unpacking 20 new air packs and 20 additional new lightweight air tanks for responding to structure fires.
Each tank lasts 30 minutes and weighs about 5 pounds, less than the older aluminum and steel models. Brown said the newer tanks have a lifespan of about 15 years.
The breathing apparatus are funded from a $78,000 grant that came through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), funds which the US Department of Agriculture Rural Development is administering through its current programs, said Pursley.
Brown said the fire district supplemented that amount with about another $25,000 to round out the purchase.
Pursley said ARRA has provided a “significant” amount of additional funds to help rural communities.
“We've really been able to reach out to a lot of communities that have good projects, that have strong needs,” but for one reason or wouldn't have been funded, Pursley said.
The second, grant for $100,000 that will fund the water tender comes through USDA Rural Development's Economic Impact Initiative Grant program, administered through its Community Facilities Program, Pursley said.
She said eligible communities have to have a “not employed” rate of 19.5 percent or higher – a number which she said is larger than the unemployment rate – and no more than 20,000 residents.
The grants cover projects such as first responders – like Northshore Fire – as well as libraries and community facilities, she said.
Those grants are available on an ongoing, year-round basis, Pursley added.
Brown said Northshore Fire is providing an additional $56,000 that, paired with the $100,000 grant, will pay for the new water tender, set to arrive this December.
Fouts Brothers Fire Equipment of Smyrna, Georgia, which has built the agency's attack engines – small engines used for wildland fires – is building the new water tender, said Brown.
The tenders usually last about 20 years, said Brown, but Northshore Fire has water tenders five to 10 years older than that still in use.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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- Written by: Lake County News Reports
The head-on collision occurred just minutes before 1 p.m. half a mile east of Highway 29 on the cutoff, according to a Lakeport Fire Protection District report. In all three vehicles were involved but injuries were only reported to two people.
Lake County Fire Protection Battalion Chief Willie Sapeta arriving about four minutes after the incident was dispatched and began assessing injuries, said Lakeport Fire paramedic/firefighter Brian Hajik.
Shortly afterward, Northshore Fire Battalion Chief Pat Brown arrived and assumed incident commander, Hajik noted.
Hajik said Lakeport ambulance 5013 requested one medical helicopter while en route to the crash based on information given by dispatch. When Brown got to the scene, he requested a second helicopter because there were two seriously injured patients.
When Lakeport's medic engine 5012 and ambulance 5013 arrived they were directed to a station wagon with one patient with an altered mental status and possible head injury, Hajik said.
Firefighters had to do extensive extrication with the jaws to life to remove the station wagon driver from the car. Hajik said they initiated aggressive advanced life support as they worked to remove the man, who was transported code three to Sutter Lakeside Hospital's helipad for transport by REACH to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital.
Northshore Fire paramedics tended to a patient in the other vehicle involved. Hajik said that individual also was transported to Sutter Lakeside Hospital's helipad code three for transport to a trauma center.
The California Highway Patrol said major injuries resulted from the crash, but the agency did not respond to a request for further information on the crash victims made Tuesday afternoon.
Officials reported alcohol is a possible contributing factor in the crash.
Hajik said air bags were deployed, and the two crash victims appeared to have been wearing seatbelts.
One minor injury to a firefighter was reported, Hajik said.
Resources on scene, Hajik noted, included one advanced life support engine company and one ambulance from Lakeport Fire, with mutual aid provided by Northshore Fire, REACH and CHP.
Emergency responders had the scene managed and cleared in just under an hour, according to Hajik.
- Details
- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
The crash occurred shortly before 10 p.m. Friday on Highway 29 south of the Highway 175 turnoff to Hopland.
Alejandro Aurelios Arias, 28, of Kelseyville is alleged to have driven at high speed into the highway's northbound lane.
There, his Ford Mustang collided head-on with a Buick Regal driven by 41-year-old Charlane Hill of Laytonville, as Lake County News has reported.
Hill was pronounced dead at the scene. Arias was arrested at the scene for driving under the influence and gross vehicular manslaughter before he was transported to Santa Rosa for treatment of major injuries to his head, pelvis and legs.
The crash also resulted in major injuries for Hill's friend, 40-year-old Maria Hill of Clearlake – who is more commonly known by the last name Holt, according to family members – and 10-year-old Ukiah resident Elizabeth Hill, Charlane Hill's niece.
Yvette Doering, Elizabeth Hill's mother, said her daughter is at Children’s Hospital & Research Center Oakland, where she's being treated for two broken ankles, a broken humerus bone in her her right arm and a separated pelvis. The child also has had surgery to fix the broken bones.
Doering called her daughter “a complete miracle.”
“She should be home in about a week,” said Doering.
Doering said Maria Hill is in stable condition at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, where she was taken after the crash.
She said family members haven't yet told her daughter about her favorite aunt's death, as they want to wait until she is recovered to break the news.
On Monday Arias remained in critical condition at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, said spokesperson Katy Hillenmeyer.
Officer Steve Tanguay of the California Highway Patrol said the driving under the influence charge against Arias is still under investigation.
A blood draw was taken from him at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, and it's currently being processed by the state Department of Justice. Tanguay said it usually takes a few weeks to get the results back.
He said the charge was made against Arias because officers observed him with alleged signs and symptoms of intoxication at the crash scene.
Arias was stopped earlier in the evening near Upper Lake and given a warning for speeding, said Capt. James Bauman of the Lake County Sheriff's Office.
Because of the ongoing investigation into the crash being led by CHP, Bauman said he couldn't discuss further case details at this point.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at