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A home in the Versailles development
A Wellington mortgage ring inflated the prices of homes in the Versailles
development in order to steal millions from lenders, and now that those responsible have
been sent to jail, buyers are getting significant bargains on homes in
the gated development. For example, one home was bought by fraudsters
for $2.145 million, but resold last year for just
$480,000. The homes are typically in pristine condition, even those that
went through the scam and were in foreclosure. The scam involved a
straw buyer taking out a loan for an inflated home value, with an
investor and a mortgage broker paying the seller for the lower, actual
value of the home. Appraisers, lenders and buyers then assumed the
higher prices were the going rate in Versailles. [Palm
Beach Post]