Couple Agree to Repay $43,000 to Scam Victims

An Inglewood couple, who promised to build homes at bargain-basement prices for low-income investors, have pleaded no contest to embezzlement charges and agreed to repay $43,000 to as many as 60 would-be homeowners.

Seroy and Jacqueline Flowers, who formed Flowers Home Club in 1987, entered the plea recently in Torrance Superior Court to six counts each of grand theft. The couple, who already have paid half of the restitution, were placed on four years’ probation by Judge Cecil J. Mills and ordered to make payments of at least $500 a month. If they fail to meet that schedule, each could go to prison for up to six years, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Peter Burke.

The 31-year-old Flowers and his 27-year-old wife promised to build homes for members of the home club for no money down and about $1,000 a month, club members said. Members of the predominantly black club said that Seroy Flowers appealed to them by invoking the name of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and saying: “He took you to the bottom of the mountain, but I’m going to take you to the mountaintop.”