With a mortgage/foreclosure crisis dampening the economy, authorities say they are seeing plenty of new fraud cases popping up. Authorities say one of the largest in the nation surfaced in recent months and affected homeowners across the nation and in Sacramento. The Bee's Christina Jewett first broke word of the case and the Sacramento-based FBI investigation in February, and the alleged ringleader is now expected to make his first court appearance in Sacramento today.
By Christina Jewett
Charles C. Head, the alleged ringleader of a massive mortgage fraud case, is scheduled to make his first appearance today in federal court in Sacramento, according to the U.S. Attorney's office.
Just over a week ago, McGregor Scott, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California, announced that Head and 18 other people had been indicted on charges related to scamming more than a hundred of people facing foreclosure and sucking millions of equity out of their homes.
Officials dubbed the case "Operation Homewrecker" and said defendants are accused of stripping $12.6 million in equity from the homes of 115 people living in states from California to New York.
Head, 33, of La Habra, is the alleged ringleader in the case and faces a minimum of 20 years in prison if he's convicted.
Head was held in Orange County until Tuesday, when he was booked into Sacramento's main jail. He is scheduled to appear at 2 p.m. today before Judge Dale Drozd at the courthouse at 5th and I Streets.
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