Man Accused of Home-Stealing Swindle

A Palos Verdes Peninsula man who allegedly used forgery, fraud and, in one case, physical intimidation to swindle South-Central Los Angeles residents out of nearly half a million dollars and the deeds to their homes was arrested Wednesday, authorities said.

William E. Hankins was taken into custody after investigators from the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office early Wednesday raided Hankins’ Inglewood brokerage business.

Hankins, 46, later pleaded not guilty in an arraignment on 13 felony counts--including six grand theft counts--and was being held at the Men’s Central Jail on $100,000 bail.

His attorney, Johnnie Cochran Jr., defended Hankins’ property transactions as “legitimate.”

“I don’t see anything criminal by any stretch of the imagination,” Cochran said.

Hankins is accused of cheating seven South-Central residents out of at least $400,000 and the deeds to six properties in a scheme he allegedly carried out between September, 1987, and October, 1991.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert M. Youngdahl said Hankins preyed on financially troubled homeowners who, faced with foreclosure, turned to him for help. Instead of help, Hankins persuaded the homeowner to sign a stack of papers, including one that transferred ownership of the property to Hankins, Youngdahl said.

In one case, Youngdahl said Hankins forged the signature of a minister to collect rent on the minister’s apartment building. In another case, he persuaded a woman to sign over the deed to a house by threatening to kill her, Youngdahl said.

“He has gotten away with it for many, many years,” the deputy district attorney said. “Some people tell me he’s been at it for 10 years. He’s a success.”

Investigators said Hankins’ alleged victims are among a growing number of homeowners throughout Southern California, who, strapped for cash, have increasingly fallen victim to foreclosure schemes in which their money, and often their properties, are taken away.

Often the victims of such schemes do not contact police because they are embarrassed or because they believe the case is a civil matter and not a crime.

Youngdahl said Hankins probably targeted homeowners with foreclosure problems through real estate publications. Hankins would then call homeowners and convince them that he could pull them out of debt, he said.

“He tells them that he owns 500 residences and that he’s a multimillionaire,” Youngdahl said. “ . . . He probably tells his friends and neighbors that he is a sharp businessman.”

Inglewood Police Detective Paul Harvey said he has heard complaints about Hankins’ business practices for seven or eight years but that most of the time Hankins was able to persuade the property owners to drop the charges before they were formally investigated.

Victims do not necessarily fall prey to these types of schemes out of ignorance, Harvey said. “There is just a lack of education out there. Often people who go through default or a foreclosure are embarrassed. They are desperate and they make for easy marks. They are very easy marks.”

A preliminary hearing for Hankins is scheduled for Jan. 13, 1992.