A Detroit-area real estate broker who represented Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac listings faces up to 20 years in prison for flipping more than 20 homes to buyers he’d already lined up. Samer Salami, 33, is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 19 after pleading no contest to charges that he conducted a criminal enterprise in a real estate fraud scheme.
Prosecutors said Salami listed homes repossessed by Fannie and Freddie (real estate owned properties, or “REOs”) in the multiple listing service. After he had an offer for a home from a “bona fide purchaser,” he would broker a sale at a lower price to a company that he controlled. That company, Trademark Assets, would then sell the property to the bona fide purchaser at the higher offer price.
The deals generated $265,000 in fraudulent profits and commissions for Salami, prosecutors said. Source: hometownlife.com.
