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MINUTES
of the
REAL ESTATE FRAUD
PROSECUTION TRUST FUND COMMITTEE
Thursday, March 26, 2009
City Hall, Room 408
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place
I. CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL
Chair Edwin Lee called the meeting to order at 3:40 p.m.
Present: Edwin M. Lee, City Administrator
Molly Stump, for the City Attorney
Lenore Anderson, for the District Attorney
II. DISCUSSION AND ACTION REGARDING ALLOCATION OF REAL ESTATE FRAUD PROSECUTION TRUST FUNDS
A. Assessor-Recorder: Taras Madison, CAO, reporting.
Ms. Madison noted that the law (Cal.Govt. Code Sec.27388 and SF Admin. Code
Sec. 8.24-5) provides that $2.00 of each document recording fee be allocated to the Real Estate Fraud Prosecution Trust Fund. Ms. Madison reported that allocations of the fund remain at:
" Assessor/Recorder – 10%
" District Attorney – 54 %
" Police Department – 36 %
Budgeted revenues for FY 2008 – 09 equaled $300,000. Fee revenues have declined due to reduction in recordings. As of February, 2009, Year-to-Date revenues equaled $89,994, 30% of total revenues. Year-end projection equals $140,000.
Chair Lee noted that the Governor has signed SB 1396 which increases the $2.00 per document fund contribution to $3.00; that an ordinance sponsored by the District Attorney is required to initiate the increase; that the additional dollar with increase the fund by approximately $70,000.
B. District Attorney: Alan Kennedy, Deputy District Attorney reporting.
Mr. Kennedy reported that the Elder Abuse and Real Estate Unit of the D.A.'s office has taken steps to implement SB 1396 by this summer.
Mr. Kennedy then presented a summary of Real Estate Fraud cases prosecuted by the D.A.s office using the funds provided by the Real Estate Fraud Prosecution Trust Fund.
Fund also allows department to train DAs to perform outreach to non-English speaking communities.
Other real estate frauds include: foreclosure rescue schemes where victims are being charged fees that lenders would not charge them; schemes involving federal stimulus funds.
Because numerous title companies, lenders and banks have gone under or have been bought out, it is difficult for the DA's office to obtain the documents it needs to prove various fraud investigations.
C. Police Department, Lt. Jones Wong, Fraud Unit reporting.
Lt. Wong reported that presently there are 59 investigations involving real estate fraud. Fifteen completed investigations into one fraud involve losses to multiple victims in the amount of $2.4 million have been completed. This was accomplished by sending Spanish speaking police officers into the Latino community to speak with victims.
The department has been investigating another real estate fraud that involves $12 million.
Chair Ed Lee congratulated the department for good community policing and cultural competency with respect to the utilization of Spanish-speaking investigators.
The reports of the Assessor-Recorder, the District Attorney and the Police Department were unanimously accepted.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at 4:10 p.m.
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