Will mortage broker go to federal prison for fraud? #whitecollarcrime #mortgagebrokers #TooShort #fraud #pressure #character

Just landed in Oakland, home of the one and only two short and received a phone call. Very sad phone call after getting off the airplane from a mortgage broker who was just indicted. The feds raided his home at six o'clock in the morning, sent him to the detention center, posted bond, gave $100,000 to a criminal defense attorney called freaked out because he's like, "I am going to federal prison, so here's the story." This was a mortgage broker for more than 30 years and more than three years ago, he engaged in with the feds, say, was a fraudulent real estate transaction. He had the listing on an apartment building at $6 million. He found a buyer for the building brought it to the seller. The buyer and seller began to negotiate. The buyer said to the seller, "Hey, I'll give you your six million bucks." However, let's record it at five million and I'll send you a million dollars once the property closes outside of escrow. The seller is like, "Okay, I'll take that deal." The mortgage broker knew that it was wrong, knew that there would be creating some victims here, but wanted to close the deal, kind of a pleaser, wanted to get paid. What's the big deal? This is business. The victims, in this case, of course, in the state of California because the sale would be recorded at five million instead of six, taking property taxes away. It also drives down comps in the area because potential buyers in the future would write an offer based on a sale of five million instead of six. The benefits, of course, the seller will pay less and transfer taxes. The buyer pays, even though he's paying six million, technically he'll pay the property taxes on five million in the broker double dips he gets paid. Here we have more than three years later, whatever commission this real estate broker earned. He just gave away to a white-collar defense attorney. Now he's feared about prison, his reputation, he's in his sixties. What will he ever do? Again, will he lose his mortgage license? Broker's license, that's a big yes. The takeaway is, you may not get paid today to do the right thing. You'll have integrity, you'll have character, and you develop self-esteem from doing the right thing even when you're faced with pressure like, wow, I would love to close this deal. You may not need kudos or acknowledgement from others, some people value it. You may not get kudos or acknowledgement from people from doing the right thing. They will secretly admire you, think twice for every decision you make. You may not get paid today, you'll reap the benefits of it for the rest of your life.