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He had feelers out everywhere. He had deals, big deals, cooking. He was charming, witty, smart, personable and told a great story. He hung around all the right places, and if there was a room full of rich people, he’d zoom in on the wealthiest of the bunch like he was equipped with a personal sense of radar. His victims, sadly, were mostly friends and acquaintances who had known him for years and who trusted him with all they had and then some.
Michael Rosen’s house of cards came crashing down in Sonoma County, California, leaving at least 60 victims to pick up the pieces. When Rosen recently filed bankruptcy, to the tune of $6 million, the scheme began to unfold.
While he had a variety of stories and deals to incite the victims to hand over their hard-earned money, one story was most prevalent. Rosen would approach a moneyed friend and explain that a mutual acquaintance – or at least someone in the area who was of good repute – was having financial problems and was looking for someone to purchase a second mortgage on his home. The victim, knowing the reputation of the allegedly financially strapped person, would turn $100,000 or more over to Rosen to purchase the second mortgage, with a promised return of 12 to 13 percent. Rosen would then fill out a deed of trust, forge the property owner’s name and give a copy to the victim – but he never recorded the transactions. None of the victims ever talked to each other because each was convinced that the cash crunch of the homeowner was a deep dark secret and the homeowner would not even know the identity of the kind soul who’d purchased the second mortgage.
Rosen then pocketed the money and paid the interest out of his bulging pockets. When money ran short, he went one step further, selling the phony deed to a second victim – saying that the first victim had run into some temporary financial problems and would sell the deed at a discounted price. That would leave two victims, each holding a worthless piece of paper on a nonexistent piece of property.
Charges appear imminent and the town folks have something to talk about in the barber shop. Some, however, can no longer afford the haircut.
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