www.ccfj.net/condorentforeclosedunit.html -
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Published on: 5/16/2009
Last Visited: 6/26/2009
Tampa real estate agent Lori Polin played a key role in one of the state's "most dramatic" mortgage fraud schemes, according to Florida's attorney general.
Polin is still an agent - and she's still engaged in questionable dealings, an angry tenant claims.
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Polin, who works for ReMax Power Advantage in Tampa, did not return phone calls seeking comment.
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Even as Florida's real estate boom fizzled in 2006, Polin appeared to be one of the area's most successful agents.
ReMax International gave her its Chairman's Club Award for agents with gross commissions of at least $500,000.
But in 2007, the Pinellas Realtor Organization and many of Polin's fellow agents received an anonymous letter claiming that at least part of her success was due to alleged mortgage fraud involving nine houses in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties.
Polin told the St. Petersburg Times then that she had done nothing wrong and was the victim of a "smear campaign" by jealous rivals.
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The suit said the co-defendants conspired with Polin and two other agents to inflate sale prices so they could obtain bigger loans and pocket "millions for their own personal use."
Polin, 49, was not named as a defendant because real estate agents are exempt from the act and subject to other state laws.
The Department of Business and Professional Regulation would not say if she is under investigation.
In 2005, Polin got a $257,520, low-interest loan to buy a condo in Tampa's Westchase area for use as her primary residence.
She signed a "borrower's occupancy rider" saying that she intended to live there and that the lender could demand full payment of the loan if she didn't.
In August, Polin rented the condo to Cole, owner of a firm that helps arrange loans for environmentally friendly projects.
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Foreclosure papers filed Jan. 30 by National City Bank show that Polin had not made a payment since September, about a month after the Coles moved in. In a letter to the bank, Polin wrote that her income had dropped 80 percent during the two years the condo had been on the market.
"In any event," she added, "I have three contracts on this property, and National City has approved it for a short sale.
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Polin's real estate Web site calls her a "well-respected" agent and "multimillion-dollar producer" with several listings in the bay area.
She is also licensed in New York, where she keeps a Manhattan apartment.
As her Web site prominently notes, Polin is "Tampa Team leader" for Sentinels for Freedom, a California foundation that gives veterans four-year grants for schooling, housing and other assistance.
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In New York, Polin now goes by the name "Lori Weber," another of her Web sites shows.
Told about a renter's claim that Polin had asked him to lie to a bank, Conklin said he would ask her to "stand down" as team leader.
"We don't want to harm our reputation," he said.
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