Los Angeles charges Real Estate Agent with fraud
Deputy District Attorney of the Real Estate Fraud Division, Walter Mueller announced in a press release the indictment of Mario Raul Guevara. Guevara, 30 was arraigned and pleaded not guilty on September 23.
Guevara a real estate broker was charged with four counts of grand theft of personal property, two counts of forgery and two counts of failure to file tax returns. His bail has been set for two million one hundred thousand dollars. He is schedule back to Foltz Criminal Justice Center on September 26 for his primary hearing.
Guevara is not alone in his misdeeds. Marcelino Hernandez and his wife Maria Guadelupe Banales were also arrested on September 23 by the Los Angeles Police Department for their roles in the fraud.
Hernandez, 47 faces one count of grand theft of personal property and forgery. He is expected to be arraigned September 25th at the Foltz Criminal Justice Center.
Banales, 38, is also charged with grand theft of personal property and forgery. She is expected as well to be arraigned on September 25th at the Foltz Criminal Justice Center.
An indicted was issued on September 9th for the trio in a felony complaint and warrants for their arrest were issued.
Mario Raul Guevara is charged with forging a borrower’s signature and using it to sell his North Hollywood home to Marcelino Hernandez. The sale netted the conspirators over seven hundred thousand dollars. The conspirator engaged in fraudulent acts in order to purchase the property.
Guevara and Banales are charged with masterminding a scheme to defraud a financial institution of one million one hundred dollars to purchase a property in Los Angeles between May of 2006 and June of 2009.
Guevara for his part solicited investors through his real estate firm Nationwide Capital Investments and netted over one thousand dollars provided to him by investors. Guevara never filed tax returns; both business and personal for the 2006 tax year.
Prosecuting Attorneys have recommended that bail be set for Hernandez at nine hundred thousand dollars and Banales at one million one hundred dollars.
Guevara for his role in the scheme faces a maximum state prison sentence of fourteen years. Hernandez and Banalas both are facing a maximum sentence of five years each.
