The U.S. Attorney in the Northern District of California has charged Robert Jacobsen with wire fraud and with engaging in financial transactions involving criminally derived proceeds. Jacobsen orchestrated an elaborate scheme whereby he would eliminate mortgages through fraudulent lawsuits in which he participated as both the plaintiff and the defendant.

According to the indictment, Jacobsen, 67, formerly of Lafayette, Calif., allegedly created a company called “American Brokers’ Conduit Corporation.” This company was not related to a similarly-named mortgage originator known as “American Brokers’ Conduit,” which had originated mortgages in the Bay Area and elsewhere. Jacobsen, through intermediaries, gained control of homes with mortgage liens that secured loans originated by the real “American Brokers’ Conduit,” by convincing the homeowners that the mortgages on the property were invalid, and that Jacobsen could eliminate the mortgages on them. The homeowners then transferred title to the properties to a shell company under Jacobsen’s control.

Then, Jacobsen, again through intermediaries representing the shell company, sued the phony “American Brokers’ Conduit Corporation” in court, claiming that the legitimate mortgage liens were invalid. As he controlled both the plaintiff and the defendant in these lawsuits, he instructed the attorneys for both sides to enter into stipulated judgments, signed by the courts, resolving the lawsuits by purporting to declare the mortgage liens invalid. In so doing, he omitted to tell the courts that neither he nor any other person involved in the lawsuits was a legitimate representative of either the real “American Brokers’ Conduit” or the then-current owners of the liens. Jacobsen filed those agreements with the relevant county recorder’s offices, to give the appearance to anyone conducting a title search that the liens had been declared invalid by a court,

Jacobsen then sold the homes to unsuspecting buyers without paying off the original loans on the homes. Jacobsen kept the vast majority of the proceeds of these sales to himself, laundering the money through multiple bank accounts in the United States and in Belize, and buying property and a yacht with the money.

Jacobsen successfully completed his scheme by selling two homes, one in Danville, Calif., and the other in San Francisco, for a total of over $1.6 million. He attempted the scheme on another home, in Monterey, Calif., which was last sold approximately 15 years ago for $2.5 million.

Jacobsen was indicted on November 5, 2015, and surrendered to federal agents in December.

If convicted, Jacobsen faces a maximum sentence of 10 years of imprisonment, and a fine of $250,000 or twice value of the property involved in the financial transaction, for each count of engaging in monetary transactions involving the criminally derived proceeds.