2 Accused of Fraud in Real Estate Scam

Two principals in a Long Beach property investment firm were arrested in connection with a real estate scheme in which 500 to 750 owners in six counties were bilked of property worth more than $4 million, police investigators said Thursday.

Sgt. Robert Bell, head of the Long Beach Police Department’s fraud detail, said Mark Meng and Marcel Jordan of Suma Properties, 4201 Long Beach Blvd., were arrested Wednesday on suspicion of grand theft and released on $5,000 bond each.

Acting on search warrants, police also seized thousands of documents found in the Suma office.

Offer to Buy

According to Bell, representatives of Suma would answer for-sale-by-owner advertisements in local newspapers, offer to buy the property at the asking price with little or no money down and promise to pay the interest on the seller’s mortgage with a balloon payment at the end of six months or a year. He said most of the sellers were experiencing financial difficulties.

Then, Bell said, the Suma representatives would ask the owner to move so that the property could be rented and keep the rents without paying the monthly payments until the property was lost through foreclosure.

He said the investigation has extended as far north as Mono County, as far south as San Diego County and has included Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside and Orange counties.

Detective Joe Yanich estimated Thursday that “conservatively speaking,” between 500 and 750 owners have lost property worth more than $4 million since Suma took out a business license in Long Beach in July, 1982.

Virginia Apke, 29, and her husband, Tom, who teaches business law at California State University, Fullerton, were listed by police as victims who lost $8,500 in equity in an Ontario condominium after advertising it for sale in a newspaper for $66,900.

After signing an agreement to buy the condominium with $500 down and promising to pay the monthly interest payments, “they (Suma) made no payments whatsoever,” Virginia Apke said.

Faced with losing what they had in the property, Virginia Apke said, she and her husband tried to regain control of the condominium, but were blocked by Suma, and eventually it was lost through foreclosure.

In the midst of their troubles with Suma, Virginia Apke said, she and her husband went to the county recorder’s office to check records and found that they were not alone in their dealings with the Long Beach firm.

“We weren’t the only suckers,” she said. “I lost $8,500. Not only that it has an effect on your credit rating when you’re foreclosed upon, now I have an unforgiveable default on my credit record.”

Even more upsetting, she said, is that the loss of the money forced her to go back to work as a real estate photographer after the birth of her son.

“If we could sell, I would have been able to stay home and take care of my baby,” she said. “But now I think I’m going to be in the salt mines.”

Yanich suggested that anyone who feels he may have been victimized should call the Long Beach Police Departments’s fraud detail at (213) 590-7377.