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Housing Scam Targets Blacks

WASHINGTON, D. C. —The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed charges against Jeanetta M. Standefor, the 40-year-old owner of California-based Accelerated Funding Group, which allegedly operated a fraudulent foreclosure reinstatement scheme aimed at African Americans who own distressed properties.
   SEC records charge that Standefor and her company AFG ran an $18 million real estate scam that targeted African Americans in Los Angeles and other locations in Nevada and Georgia.
The SEC alleges that the scheme promised investors returns of up to 50 percent within 30 to 45 days. But Standefor and AFG were instead operating a Ponzi-like scheme that used money from new investors to pay previous investors.

Posted May 28, 2008

  May 14, a federal grand jury in Los Angeles returned an 11-count indictment charging Standefor with wire fraud, mail fraud, and money launderings. She faces a maximum sentence of 180 years in prison.
“Investors were lured into believing they were investing in notes on specific distressed properties, under a deal with homeowners that never existed,” said FBI agent Rosalind R. Tyson, acting director of the SEC’s Los Angeles regional office.
    Standefor and AFG solicited investors in the African American community through a now-defunct web site, by word of mouth, testimonials, or through other seemingly successful black investors.
    AFG then sent materials which described its program as “virtually risk free.” Investors were promised their principal would be safely returned within 72 hours upon request.
   However requests for the return of their investments were ignored.

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