Scam artist gets 27 years

GLENDALE — A 48-year-old man was sentenced Friday to more than 27 years in prison for scamming seven people and four financial institutions in a mortgage fraud scheme, officials said Monday.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert Perry ordered Joseph Little to serve 27 years and four months in state prison after a jury convicted him Dec. 8 on 40 counts that included identity theft, forgery, preparing false financial statements, grand theft and conspiracy, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

Little’s co-conspirator, Dwight Shelton, 40, was sentenced to 29 years and four months in prison, according to the district attorney’s office.

“The evidence clearly showed that Dwight Shelton and Joseph Little are nothing more than cold, calculating, serial fraudsters,” said Glendale Police Det. Robert Zaun, the case’s lead investigator.

After a three-year investigation, police discovered that the pair represented themselves as real estate facilitators and recruited fraudulent mortgage brokers and notaries to submit fake loan applications and appraisals to lenders for six properties, he said.

The properties were in Glendale, West Hollywood, Whittier, Murrieta, Los Angeles and Scottsdale, Ariz., Zaun said.

Lenders advanced the loans based on information in the bogus applications, he said.

The loans were then deposited to a phony corporation, which Shelton controlled, Zaun said.

Police began investigating the pair in November 2006 after a Glendale homeowner reported that someone sold his home without his knowledge, he said.

The homeowner never put his home up for lease or sale, Zaun said.

His home was sold to a straw buyer, who typically allows his or her credit to be used to buy a home that they never intend to live in. The straw buyer generally receives compensation for the action, which is considered fraud.

But in this case, someone’s name and credit was used to buy the home without authorization, he said. The person became a straw buyer without even knowing, Zaun said.

The pair received about $780,000 through fraudulent transactions, according to the district attorney’s office.

The four financial institutions suffered a loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars in loans that were never repaid, according to the district attorney’s office.

And some properties were resold at a loss, according to the district attorney’s office.

One of the pair’s victims was an 88-year-old man with Alzheimer’s disease, whose home was fully paid for.

He lost more than $125,000 in the scheme.

Still, no one lost their homes, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Dan Baker of the Real Estate Fraud Section.

Another five people involved in the scheme took a plea deal before the trial, according to the district attorney’s office.

Little was also convicted and sentenced to five years in prison in a separate real estate fraud case, Baker said.

His attorney, Maryetta Marks, who’s representing him in a third fraud-related case, said he has a strong defense and plans to go forward with a preliminary hearing for those charges.