Quantcast
Home manage Las Vegas Review-Journal
  Jobs Cars Homes Shopping Travel Weddings Golf Best of Las Vegas Photo   Search:

RECENT EDITIONS
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

sponsored by
Business


Real estate broker, spouse indicted on fraud charges

Authorities say LV pair allegedly in scheme involving inflated home prices, straw buyers

A Las Vegas real estate broker and her husband have been indicted on charges of defrauding federally insured financial institutions of millions of dollars in a mortgage scheme, a special task force investigating mortgage fraud in Las Vegas announced.

Eve Mazzarella and her husband, Steven Grimm, were allegedly involved in a scheme of inflated housing values, straw buyers and limited liability companies, authorities said.


Most Popular Stories
  • Mayor calls Lady Luck casino 'carcass'
  • CASINOS IN COURT: Testimony heard in Wynn case
  • Consolidated Resorts files for Chapter 7 bankruptcy
  • Players turned away at WSOP
  • Fontainebleau files motion to leave offices
  • Boulder Dam Hotel forced to close doors
  • Area economy hits 'pause' period, economist says
  • NEVADAN AT WORK: Local gaming veteran sees opportunity in small Henderson casino
  • Mandarin adds swank to Strip
  • Las Vegas investor seeks approval of Riviera ownership stake




  • They're charged with six counts of bank fraud and one count of money laundering. Grimm was arrested Thursday and is scheduled to appear before a U.S. Magistrate Judge. Mazzarella has not been arrested.

    The couple operated a number of limited liability companies registered in Nevada. They recruited "straw buyers," or individuals to make purchase offers substantially above the seller's asking price.

    Once the purchases were negotiated, the straw buyers apply for mortgages at financial institutions and transfer the title to a designated LLC. After the mortgage loans were funded, the defendants would direct the title and escrow companies to disburse a portion of each loan to their LLC. They would then sell the property to another straw buyer at an inflated price.

    The case was uncovered by the Southern Nevada Mortgage Fraud Task Force, composed of local and federal agencies such as the FBI, Internal Revenue Service, Metropolitan Police Department, Nevada attorney general's office and office of the inspector general for the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

    U.S. Attorney Gregory Brower said mortgage fraud schemes have a trickle-down effect on Las Vegas residents.

    "Home values and availability of credit are undermined by schemes like this one," he said.

    When home prices are fraudulently inflated, legitimate home-buyers will also pay a higher price because appraisals throughout the neighborhood are increased.

    "All of us are victims," Brower said. "This type of fraud scheme impacts the real estate market."

    Steve Hawks of ReMax Platinum said these scams have been prevalent in Las Vegas for a while.

    He cited a mortgage fraud case involving Pacific Wealth Management LLC, a Nevada company alleged to be one of four operators in violation of the RICO (Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) act.

    The lawsuit alleges that more than 700 victims have been scammed in several states with total damages exceeding $1.2 billion.

    Review-Journal writer Adrienne Packer contributed to this report. Contact reporter Hubble Smith at hsmith@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0491.

    Newsvine Digg Fark Technorati reddit StumbleUpon del.icio.us Slashdot Propeller Mixx Furl Twitter MySpace Facebook Google Bookmarks Yahoo! Bookmarks Windows Live Favorites Ask MyStuff myAOL Favorites

    Leave Your Comment 10 Reader Comments
    Terms & Conditions
    The following comments are provided by readers and are the sole responsiblity of the authors. The reviewjournal.com does not review comments before publication nor guarantee their accuracy. By publishing a comment here you agree to abide by the comment policy. If you see a comment that violates the policy, please notify the web editor.

    Some comments may not display immediately due to an automatic filter. These comments will be reviewed within 48 hours. Please do not submit a comment more than once.
    Current Word Count:

    Note: Comments made by reporters and editors of the Las Vegas Review-Journal are presented with a yellow background.

    k. mueller wrote on November 03, 2008 07:58 PM: I just submitted a comment and would like to retract it entirely please. I will seek elsewhere for info. as this website is not appropriate. Thank you.


    k. mueller wrote on November 03, 2008 07:54 PM: I am aware of someone who claims to have a real estate license, publishes it on the web with name and company affiliation. This person claims to be married to a man who uses an alias and she, too, uses his alias as her married name as well as another name. I have reason to believe there may be identity fraud here. For other reasons, I believe this penson may also have a record. They are both stalking and harassing me, have damaged my property, and I would like to know how I can protect myself? I think they pose a danger to me. I live alone. The authorities are doing nothing about the stalkings and harassment, nor is the management company.

    Please advise.



    rochelle pyle wrote on April 23, 2008 01:00 PM: As a licensed real estate agent and Realtor, I can tell you that the fraud is typically detected BY a realtor, loan officer or escrow agent. I've turned in scamsters to the FBI myself.

    Realtors are people. There are going to be scummy people who get into real estate just like anything else. And the fact that Eve Mazzarella left anyone elses company to run her own one-woman operation is an indication of how much harder this would have been to do in any other brokerage in town.

    Higher licensing requirements would have prevented a number of people from getting into the business in the last five years so we wouldn't have cocktail waitresses, mechanics, lawyers, ministers and dog sitters calling themselves experts on real estate just because they got the license. But in this particular case, she is a very experienced agent. She knows exactly what she is doing wrong. But she is married to a criminal and the two of them decided to exploit the system along with a number of other criminals who had to have helped them.

    It is no longer possible to get a loan if you don't have a job. That WAS possible 3-4 years ago. But while it was, some criminals made a run on the bank. And it helped turn a recession into a depression in real estate.

    But any of us can profit from this. Buy these foreclosed homes at 50% off. The banks are idiots for dumping homes on the market at such low prices but nothing stops you from taking advantage of them. Legally.


    Joe Friday wrote on March 22, 2008 08:09 AM: Tip of the iceberg in the real estate business. Now if the Mortgage Fraud Task Force would prosecute the "cash back at close of escrow" crowd we would jail somemore scumbags.

    Greedy real estate agents, bogus appraisals, corrupt mortgage brokers; they all conspire to commit fraud on the lending industry.

    Jail for all of them...send a message.


    28 year resident wrote on March 16, 2008 09:46 PM: I hope for this to be only the beginning of indictments as these 2 are a pool of many agents making thousands and millions from frauding others mainly us "tax payers" who hurt the most when it is all said and done. Lets Hope Eve "SCUM OF THE EARTH MAZZARELLA" learns a lesson of "respect" instead of parading around town living a fake "glamorous" life with her Mercedes and million dollar home which she bought from the millions that she frauded innocent buyers, sellers and mortgage companies out of.


    Citizen wrote on March 16, 2008 01:53 AM: Well now, the indictment of these two lowlifes, another sorry chapter unfolds on the corruption and illegeal dealing overseen by GLVAR and the State Real Estate Agency. Widespread pump and dump real estate sales occured over the last 10 years in Clark County with no enforecment of any Brokers or their pricipal real estate firms. SWatch the number of indictments and real estate brokers names in these schemes rise. Noone should trust any current value of a property for sale, these values are all totally based upon fraud, speculative dealings and nonsense.


    the dodger wrote on March 15, 2008 07:07 PM: I can only hope this slew of law enforcement agents keep finding more and more of these criminals. These are the kind of people who need to spend the rest of their lives in jail. One question, why has Eve Mazzarella not been arrested? Is she hanging out with that other female who was in car at the Palo Verde shooting?


    G wrote on March 15, 2008 05:17 PM: Hang them from the highest tree. Cut their heads off. Draw and quater them. Slice them like a ripe melon. Death to them all. Praise Allah and Mohammed cut his beard, and take a bath.


    OMIK wrote on March 15, 2008 03:52 PM: REALTORS...THE LOWEST FORM OF HUMANS THERE ARE OUT THERE. MORONS ALL MORONS


    O'Sal wrote on March 15, 2008 07:32 AM: Just the tip of the iceberg....and is melting rapidly.