Audra Tubin and Mortgage Loan Fraud? Part 3 in a series.
According to Murphy's law ‘If anything can go wrong it will’. That appears to have happened here with the recent change in ownership in TNF Holdings now doing business as the Anthem View Restaurant. As we already know, the new majority owner of our leased restaurant/banquet operations is Audra Tubin. To her credit, Audra appears to have taken some positive steps in managing the direction of restaurant operations. We hope those positive efforts will continue.
The real question is whether those efforts will continue under Audra’s leadership. Certain disclosures already brought forward have been discomforting, raising unanswered questions about why she is here and questions of full disclosure. At the moment, there are two pending hurdles for Audra to overcome. The first and immediate hurdle to overcome is the need to transfer the restaurant/liquor license to the new owner. I am led to believe that must happen sometime next month in August.
That transfer process is much more complex than adding a new name to the license. According to the City of Henderson business license department, that application process entails an application plus a 13-page personal history questionnaire about the owners and spouses to be investigated by the Henderson Police Department. The second, depending on the lessee’s future desire to follow through on their initial interest, is a license from the State to offer gaming. Since the prospect of that second hurdle is unknown, there is no need to further pursue that issue here.
Some view that required first hurdle as simply too difficult for Audra to successfully overcome. To me, that “too difficult” judgment appears a bit too hasty and unrealistic and is at best speculative since we have no knowledge on how the City will view or process the information that will be provided in the application process.
Setting aside that new owner license issue, is there is anything else on the horizon that might pose a potential problem for Audra Tubin? Unfortunately for Audra, it would seem that the answer is a resounding YES.
Sadly for Audra, she has a real mortgage loan fraud issue to deal with in connection with her recent purchase of property identified as Assessor's Parcel Number 178-06-101-020 in Clark County. This is not speculation or conjecture, but is simply a fact. The grant deed, deed of trust and most likely the FHA insured loan documents were executed by Audra Tubin in February 2010. The loan fraud refers to the manner in which the property was conveyed or passed on to the buyer, in this case, Audra Tubin.
When stating how title on this property was to be conveyed, Audra Tubin apparently directed that title in the newly acquired property be conveyed to: AUDRA TUBIN, AN UNMARRIED WOMAN. While this information is interesting, and based on what we already know about Audra, that “UNMARRIED WOMAN” statement would appear to be false. In making such a false statement, regardless of any purported reasons that are automatically deemed unacceptable, Audra's action raises questions about what other information was provided that might also be false or what information might be missing had she divulged she was a married woman. You can read the relevant face page of two of those deed documents by Clicking here. It is difficult to imagine that such critical and blatantly false information was merely a mistake on someone's part.
Note: I have but did not publish all 20 odd pages of the documents that pertained to this property transaction, including the notarized signature pages of Audra Tubin.
As to whose advice Audra was acting on in declaring that she was an unmarried woman is unknown. In a different transaction a year earlier, property sold by the Tubins was sold in the names of Keith Tubin and Audra Tubin, husband and wife as community property. In the above instance a year later, Audra became “an unmarried woman” when acquiring property in 2010. Needless to say, there are a number of state and federal agencies that have authority to look further into these transactions.
Some may relay to me that it has become the accepted practice that people lie on forms. Job applications and resumes, insurance claims and credit applications are all examples of forms where people have been known to stretch the economical truth to suit their interests. Even in the case of mortgage applications, it was not that unusal for the applicant’s stated income to be inflated, more so in the past than under current mortgage conditions. The range of false information provided lenders went from little white lies about income or assets all the way up to what the FBI calls "air loans" that are based on completely fabricated information, sometimes with the help of a cooperative mortgage broker. We have no such information on this transaction at this time. I think even David Berman will agree that the manner in which one decides to take title to purchased property is a significant element in the mortgage process and does not fall into the category of a little white lie like inflating one's income.
Most homeowners should understand that falsifying information on a mortgage application is a form of mortgage fraud. As a mortgage applicant, you must know the application contains language you are agreeing to at the time you are asked to sign and that language outlines the penalty for providing false information.
For example, here is the relevant portion of such mortgage loan applications:
Each of the undersigned specifically represents to Lender and to Lender’s actual or potential agents, brokers, processors, attorneys, insurers, servicers, successors and assigns and agrees and acknowledges that: the information provided in this application is true and correct as of the date set forth opposite my signature and that any intentional or negligent misrepresentation of this information contained in this application may result in civil liability, including monetary damages, to any person who may suffer any loss due to reliance upon any misrepresentation that I have made on this application, and/or in criminal penalties including, but not limited to, fine or imprisonment or both under the provisions of Title 18, United States Code, Sec. 1001, et seq.
Anyone applying for a mortgage is affirming he or she is providing truthful information and any intentional or negligent misrepresentation could be actionable including a civil or criminal charge which if convicted can carry criminal penalties including, but not limited to, fine or imprisonment or both under the provisions of Title 18, United States Code, Sec. 1001, et seq. For a definition of what constitutes false statements under Title 18, see the brief article in Wikipedia here.
Whether or how this mortgage loan fraud information about Audra Tubin might impact the future ownership of TNF Holdings is unknown. This new information, coupled with the prospect of difficulty in being able to secure a liquor license in Audra Tubin's name, should be a cause for concern on the part of all parties who are at risk in this venture.
Ron Johnson, 21 July 2010