Just how shady was Jeremy Richardson?

PORTLAND, Ore. - He lived in a 2,800 square-foot home with a great view of Mount Hood. 

Jeremy Richardson, 31, also drove a BMW 530i, owned a brand new GMC Denali, a $100,000 RV, and his vacations last year included 10 days in the Virgin Islands at the Ritz Carlton St. Thomas, more than a week in Maui at the prestigious Westin Resort and weekend jaunts to Victoria, B.C.

Co-workers say Richardson also bragged about owning a lot of homes, "…more than 300 properties in the Northwest alone."

Richardson had all of this even though he filed bankruptcy two years ago as a nearly penniless used car salesman.

Despite his financial situation, he was able to convince hundreds of people to hand him their last few thousand dollars in a housing scheme where he promised to give those who do not qualify for home loans the dream of home ownership. 

"They talk a good game. Believe me they talk a good game," said Lynn King-Wohlhuter, one of Richardson's clients.

Richardson and his companies, Richardson Equities and Richardson Realty, also advertised a good game with brochures and listings on Craigslist across the country.

King-Wohlhuter found his company while searching the web late last year.

"I started back in October on Craigslist looking for a place that we could possibly move into," she said.

She gave Richardson a cashier's check. It was her last $3,000, but she said she dreamed of owning a home and was willing to take the risk when Richardson and one of his employees promised they would answer her dream.

It was a promise Richardson made often through his company's "Lease to Purchase Option" program. He e-mailed documents to tenant/buyers and to investors stating those promises.

He guaranteed investors he would cover costs if tenants missed their monthly mortgage payments and he told tenants they would get payments they could afford while building credit and equity toward the purchase of their homes.

Ford Chapman, a former Richardson Realty employee and client, said those promises were broken more than they were kept.

Chapman is now trying to sell a Happy Valley area home threatened by foreclosure because the tenant/buyers ended up with payments close to $2,500 when they were promised monthly housing costs of just $1,600. 

"They moved in here, and they had no means to pay the mortgage," said Chapman.

Chapman, who sold homes for Richardson Realty for several months, said he too was taken by Richardson's "Lease to Purchase Option" program.  He said he mailed monthly mortgage payments to Richardson after becoming a tenant/buyer in one of his new employer's investor-funded homes, but the payments were never made on the mortgage.

"I received a notice from the bank saying the house was being foreclosed on," he said. "I had until the 29th of this month until the utilities were turned off and I had until the 5th of this next month to get out of the house with my children and my 91-year-old uncle."

Former employees and investigators tell KATU there are victims in at least 15 states stretching from Alaska to the East coast.

Workers and family members say Richardson packed his computers and files into his BMW on Jan. 19 and headed south for Mexico after it was clear his scheme had been exposed.

We tracked Richardson to a hotel in Baja, Mexico, just one week after he closed the doors to his Happy Valley office and removed all of the company's computers and files.

Richardson's family said his sister, Lindsey Wigen, who lives in one of the leased homes in Vancouver, mailed a package addressed to Richardson to the Carona Hotel in Baja. The FBI confiscated Richardson's work computer from the Vancouver house a week later.

Soon after he left town, KATU uncovered documents from the Secretary of State showing Richardson's manager for most of last year was Tami Secanti (pictured on the right), a woman who is now serving time in the Coffee Creek Women's Correctional Facility in Wilsonville for identity theft. 

When we showed Walt Moon, one of Richardson's initial tenant/buyers, what we found, he was obviously worried.

"That really concerns me, yes," he said.

Moon is extra worried because Secanti handled his personal information. He said he gave her his social security number and bank records.

As for Chapman, he said his bank account was drained by identity thieves.

"All four of my bank accounts are now overdrawn and there are fraud investigations on all of my accounts," he said. 

Chapman said some of his Richardson Realty buyers have also been hit by identity theft after investing with Richardson Equities, but many more face homelessness, foreclosure and even the threat of criminal investigations.

Here's why. People who worked for Richardson say in many cases Richardson would find a tenant/buyer and then match them with an investor. They say, in some cases, Secanti or Richardson would then make phony payroll records and even IRS W2 forms showing that investors made a lot of money, so they would qualify for loans.

In addition, employees say many times properties were over appraised or Richardson used a document known as a Texas Earnest Money Agreement to secure more money than the actual sale price of the homes. Richardson, they say, would then pocket most or all of that money when sellers cut him a check for the difference after closing.

County property and mortgage records also show Richardson convinced at least a dozen homeowners to cut him in on 50% of the property deeds after closing, even though Richardson never invested a penny of his own money.

At least 10 investors quickly bought multiple properties under Richardson's direction. Some purchased three, four, five or even nine homes within a very short period of time. Now they believe it was part of a scheme that would prevent lenders from electronically tracking how many properties each investor really owned or was in the process of purchasing.

An investor named "Paul" told KATU he now realizes that Richardson convinced him to commit loan fraud. "He said these loans are legal, and they…the bank lends you the loan and you should be able to sign for it," he said.

"Paul" signed five loan agreements in two months. All of the mortgages were written as "owner occupied." "Paul" said he never lived in one of the homes and never intended to occupy them. He said they were purchased as rentals.

"On Your Side" Investigators have talked to several other investors who also admitted they purchased homes as "owner occupied" even though Richardson and his company were leasing the homes to tenant/buyers they found through online ads.

Family members say Richardson is headed to Panama to live with his 28-year-old brother, Daniel Richardson, but Daniel contacted KATU and told him his brother is not welcome at his Panama home.

Richardson left behind his fiancée and her four children, including the couple's 10-month-old baby. His fiancée is not commenting on Richardson's business scheme or about his fleeing the country. Her family, however, says she and the children are also victims of what mortgage experts say is one of the biggest home financing fraud cases to ever hit the Northwest.