A series of shady real estate deals in The Junction points toward mortgage fraud

Lawyer Ron Allan Hatcher has been suspended for his role at the centre of some rather unorthodox home sales in the west end. In the deals, houses were flipped in quick succession, the same buyers kept popping up again and again, and each sale saw a dramatic price increase—sometimes as much as 60 per cent—which, in turn, allowed later buyers access to larger mortgages from financial institutions. In one case, a woman bought a house with her brother-in-law for $270,000, only to sell it back it to herself that same week for $310,000. Former Richmond Hill real estate agent Jennifer Sau San Wu handled that sale—before she ended up in prison for being involved in marijuana grow ops and tax evasion, among other things. Of course, all the drama was made possible by the fact that property valuation is an art, not a science. Which is the same problem that has us, and everybody else in the city and beyond, wondering whether Toronto’s condo market is in a bubble state or not. Read the entire story [Toronto Star] »