Dave Siciliano
Final Approach
I've written that we've seen some pretty aggressive action in the Dallas area raw land market. Turns out, we had a party put one of our tracts of land under contract. They didn't seem like real responsive, savy folks, but had closed a near by property. They offered a generous price and put down a good chunk of earnest money. When time came to close, they asked for an extension. After a lot of back and forth, we granted one on the condition they release some of their earnest money.
Late Friday, the SEC filed suit to freeze all their assets and a district court granted the action. I read the filing and these folks were raising money through a telephone boiler operation; lying about what they had purchased and what was going on an one had been sanctioned in the past.
Anyway, the title to this property will most likely be encumbered until a receiver can work through the mess. We had planned on the closing an made other commitments, now we're scrambling to cover those obligations.
People like this hurt investors, lenders and sellers--they don't care. Wish the punishment could be harsher than the options open to the SEC. Be careful out there.
Dave
Late Friday, the SEC filed suit to freeze all their assets and a district court granted the action. I read the filing and these folks were raising money through a telephone boiler operation; lying about what they had purchased and what was going on an one had been sanctioned in the past.
Anyway, the title to this property will most likely be encumbered until a receiver can work through the mess. We had planned on the closing an made other commitments, now we're scrambling to cover those obligations.
People like this hurt investors, lenders and sellers--they don't care. Wish the punishment could be harsher than the options open to the SEC. Be careful out there.
Dave