Pssst! Hey Slick. Wanna Buy a Condo?

A few years ago, at Mardi Gras in New Orleans, some moron was having so much fun he decided to take out his gun and start firing shots into the air.  Unfortunately, one of the bullets came down a few blocks away and hit an innocent woman in the head and killed her.   Now, if I HATED someone and really wanted them dead, I could take a gun (I'd have to get one first) and I could sneak up behind the guy and put my gun against his head, pull  my trigger now he's dead.  (sorry, channeling Freddie Mercury for a few seconds).  Though the clown in N'awlins and I would BOTH be responsible for the death of a person, we would be charged and tried to VERY different standards based on our motivation.  Unfortunately for the persons killed, our motives have no bearing on how dead they are ..... they're both just as dead.

So when the Boston Globe gets a story wrong and people who use the story as a basis for their behavior, or tell others of the story and THEY go along with the inaccurate story, and people get hurt, the Globe is responsible.  But mistakes are inevitable and are made by everyone .... I know I've made my share.  But when the Boston Globe reporter writes a story and NONE of the details in the story match the narrative, that means the reporter and editors , nobody, checked to make sure the article was accurate.  THAT would make the personnel involved FAR more culpable then if they just made a mistake.  This brings us to an absolutely astonishing inaccurate piece by Globe reporter Gail Ravgiala titled  "Triple Deckers get a second life" from April 24, 2005 (Don't worry, it ties into more recent articles)

Ms Ravgiala's essay presents to us (Michael) David Scott, a native of Trinidad that is rehabilitating three deckers into condos and who's business plan is to : "establish a reputation for quality, make a reasonable rate of return, and then leverage both by reinvesting in a community."  So committed is he to the neighborhoods that, instead of focusing on the top of the market, Scott is focusing on people who  " .. work for the Boston Public Schools or the MBTA or a nonprofit agency. They have a commitment to the community. Some of them grew up in these neighborhoods and are looking to move back."  (Don't you just know something is wrong when you see hackneyed cliches like "commitment to the community")

And, despite the upbeat tone, there are things that are either wrong or that just don't add up.  As I've said before, if there is a Globe article with a name or an address I'll check the information and the description the Globe gives is invariably wrong.

The project he and his partners are  working on at the time of the article is called the "Dorchester Elite Condo"   on Dix Street but they don't give an address ..... so I go to my real estate tax data (I buy from the city every year) ....but I can't find Scott's name anywhere or the name of his partner "Michael Hecker".  So I go to the registry of Deeds on-line and still can't find those names on any recent transactions on Dix Street, nor can I the name of his company " Metro Property Partners LLP".  Now that's odd.

Well, the article mentions another property they are developing at 465 Ashmont Street in Dorchester  but still no Scott, Hecker, or the corporate name but here we do get a hit at the Registry,  the owner is listed as Gene Mitchell ..... who the hell is he??  But more odd is that Mitchell purchased the home on 02/24/2005 with "piggback" mortgages to Gateway Funding Diversified totaling $474,050 and these mortgages have clauses that state the mortgage is for an owner occupied building (#6.  Occupancy.  Borrower shall occupy, establish, and use the Property as Borrower's principal residence within 60 days ...")  So who is Mitchell, why is he supposed to be an owner occupant, if Scott and Hecker say it's their development??  Clearly the reporter NOR the editors checked this out because they didn't seem to have checked anything!

We also get the names and quotes from buyers of Scott's developments, but they don't seem to be in the registry of deeds either.   Now it's getting really strange.  And then, I just got lucky.  My curiosity piqued, I went back to recheck the information  on the registry web site and Voila!!!!  the Master deed for the Dix Street property is recorded the following day April 25, 2005 but now I'm stumped again, the property is  74 Dix street but again Scott or Hecker ain't the owners ... It's April and Michael Walton who bought the three decker on 12/14/2004 for $550,000 with piggyback mortgages to Greenpoint Mortgage Corp totaling $495,000 and again with that owner occupant clause (#6.  Occupancy.  Borrower shall occupy, establish, and use the Property as Borrower's principal residence within 60 days ..."). So who are the Walton's?  But more so, it's becoming clear ... something is very wrong here!  Or, as I asked myself, "What are they hiding?"

You see, lets just assume that Scott, etal ARE pouring their money into rehabbing these properties.  The money could be lost in a second if, for example, Gene Mitchell has an accident and a person is hurt or killed and Mr Mitchell is at fault.  Any lawyer worth their salt would have a lien on everything Mr. Mitchell owned in seconds ..... and Scott and Hecker would risk losing every penny they put in  it.  For people who are already getting legal advice (They set up a LLP) they are unnecessarily being far too risky in the form of ownership they chose!

And things just keep getting more weird.  One of Scott's buyers, Sonia Gilmere, praises him that "If there is something a buyer doesn't like, Scott will work with them. ''David changed the colors for me,".  So I look up Ms Gilmere and she's nowhere to be found in the Registry!!!  Almost a month later (05/13/20050 I noticed that a Sonia Gilmere buys a condo unit from Scott, etal.  Almost a month BEFORE she buys the unit she's selling Scott to others?  Didn't the reporter or the editors notice any of that??

Ms Gilmere is at least still living in her unit.  Another buyer heaping praise on Scott is Marie Firman who, with her nephew, is buying all three units in another three decker.    It turns out, also as above, the nephew Tyrone Calloway, doesn't close on his first unit at 133 Harold Street #3 for another 1 1/2 months.  He pays $253,500 with piggyback mortgages to sub-prime lender Option One Mortgage totalling $253,500 (100% L/V) and unit #2 for the same price with 100% L/V piggback  mortgages to subprime purveyors Accredited Home Lenders both on 06/08/2005.  He then purchases unit #1 on 06/13/2005 for the same price but this time with piggyback  mortgages to sub prime lender First Franklin Financial for 100% L/V.  Ironically, the lenders expected Mr Calloway to be an owner occupant in all three units. (Yep, that same Clause #6 in the mortgages)  Because nobody at the Globe checked any detail,  they couldn't have found THAT  either.

With all these red flags flying at every level in the story the Globe went ahead and published the article.  Those flags got MY attention which is why I had to sit and watch what was transpiring  right before my eyes .... like a slow motion plane crash.  And THAT brings us to the Boston Globe articles by Jennifer McKim on February 2, 2009  "Bank alleges it was defrauded of $1.5 million" and finally her piece on December 13, 2009 "Developer's easy-money pitch left a trail of ruin"

For reasons I can't yet explain I really can't say too much more about the Michael David Scott saga but I think that last article says it all.  Repeated calls to a member of the Boston Globe editorial board went unheeded (Right Larry Harmon?) and calls to others like columnist Derrick Jackson who could probably find racism in a sneeze wouldn't touch Michael David Scott.  Derrick, how may times did I call and try to explain to you that black home-buyers were getting screwed?  4 or 5 wasn't it?  And you did what ????? I guess it's easier just dragging out those NCAA March Madness schedules and comparing black graduation rates year, after year, after year ....

I did speak with a few of Scott's buyers.  The one woman who bought a condo in Roxbury  had problems from the day she moved in and took him to court several times.  She also claimed he was harassing her (I have NO way of verifying that).  But she told one thing that put the whole episode in perspective.  She saw the Globe article and referred others to Scott because of it.  She told me she was comfortable because Scott and she were both black.   Then added "But now I know he's nothing but a street thug in a three piece suit".

Remember Tyrone Calloway, he did successfully sell one of the three units he was owner occupant in, #3, but ended up losing the other two units to foreclosure.   Ms Gilmere still owns her unit but, since prices have collapsed, it's worth far less then the balances of her mortgages.   And how about 74 Dix Street, the Dorchester Elite!  One woman bought all three units for a total for (get this) $1,036,000.  Scott could have replace all the floors with marble and all the metal with gold and it wouldn't haven been worth $1 million.  But that's OK, it took her less than 2 years to lose all three units to foreclosure. And 465 Ashmont Street?  All three the units were purchased by members of the Dolly family, Agaphitus,  Lenora and Isadora of Miami ...... that's right Miami.  But unit #2 was later sold to a person that may sound familiar ..... it was purchased by one Tyrone Calloway on 10/25/2005.  Unit 1 and unit 3, owned by the Dolly's were able to be sold at a huge loss,  more then 75% less then they paid  and Mr Calloway lost his to foreclosure.

The Boston Globe has blood on their hands but keeps it as quite as possible.  And every person that I dealt with that bought from Scott was black (or is it ... "person of  color" ) so that the blood is the finances of minority home-buyers across Roxbury and Dorchester.

Some of you have heard me say it before, "You don't need the Klu Klux Klan, or the American Nazi party or Aryan Nation to keep black people poor, white liberals (and black liberals) do the job very well on their own!"  And few seem to do it as well as the Boston Globe!

Don't hold your breath waiting for the Globe to say "I'm sorry".

PS: By my work, there was about 3 times the fraud in the Dorchester and Roxbury condo markets than  is (allegedly) attributed to Mr Scott.   I haven't read about any of THAT in the Globe either.