4 Charged in Alleged Rental Listing Fraud

In a continuing crackdown on consumer fraud, city prosecutors filed criminal charges Monday against the operators of two San Fernando Valley rental listing services.

Four people were charged with 18 misdemeanor counts of grand theft and a series of other business code violations in connection with two companies they operated, Global Management in Sherman Oaks and Quality Rentals in Burbank.

Defendants are Vickie Lee Cardoza, 40, and her 30-year-old brother, Matthew Allen Cardoza, both of Glendale; Gregory Mark Schwartz, 21, of La Canada Flintridge, and Johnny Noel Rojas, 25, of Los Angeles.

Deputy City Atty. Mark Lambert said the charges filed in Los Angeles Municipal Court are significant because the crime is rampant and affects potentially hundreds of victims.

“I think many operators have been running this kind of scam with impunity believing that the law was not going to take action and that charges would not be filed,” Lambert said. “These people are going to learn that there’s a cost attached to running this business.”

With the case filed Monday, prosecutors in Los Angeles and Burbank over nine months have brought charges against 11 individuals involved in five rental listing companies that allegedly cheated customers by lying about their services and refund policies.

The companies lure customers by offering exclusive lists of properties, promise rent reductions and lower move-in fees and offer to refund $150 deposits if nothing suitable is found within 90 days, said Los Angeles Police Det. Carrie Henry of the bunco section.

“It was a bunch of monkey business,” Henry said. “What we found was that they had hundreds and hundreds of clients but what we didn’t find was any evidence they gave refunds.”

Customers of Quality Rental and Global Management told investigators that most of the properties on the lists were already rented, in poor condition, or did not have the promised amenities. Some were renting for higher amounts than advertised, he said.

When contacted by potential renters, some landlords said they had never heard of the rental listing company, Lambert said.

When customers complained about the allegedly poor service, they were denied their promised refunds, Lambert said. State law requires rental services to refund all but $25 to customers who do not find a suitable rental.

Stanley Rozanski, lawyer for Vickie Cardoza, denied the charges.

Interviewed by The Times, Schwartz denied the allegation. “I’m really shocked right now,” Schwartz said. “As far as I knew everything was fine.”

The company ran ads in such publications as the Los Angeles Times, the Tolucan, the Pennysaver and the Recycler, according to the city attorney’s office.

“Typically what happens is the people pay their fee, find that the rentals are unsatisfactory, . . . and, of course, they don’t get their money back,” said Randy Brendia, an official with the state Department of Real Estate.

Global Management, which operated in the 13700 block of Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks, reportedly closed after police, armed with a search warrant, seized records July 15.

Authorities said operators typically shut down upon learning they are under investigation, only to open up under new names somewhere else, making it nearly impossible to halt the scheme.

“It really stinks that these places keep opening up,” one frustrated official said on condition of anonymity.

Between 1993 and 1995, Cardoza allegedly operated two rental listing services in Glendale and Burbank--Properties Unlimited and Quality Rentals--that eventually shut down amid a flood of lawsuits and complaints to police and the state Department of Real Estate.

But she surfaced again last summer as an officer of Global Management.

Schwartz formerly worked at Vista Property Management in Temple City--a rental listing service that is under criminal investigation by the Los Angeles County district attorney--before coming to Global last summer.

Schwartz worked for Global until last month, when he joined a new rental listing service called West Coast Credit in the 7800 block of Balboa Boulevard in Van Nuys.

Times staff writer Myron Levin contributed to this story.