A nine-person Texas team that operated a series of fraudulent deed schemes has been hit with a pair of lawsuits filed by Harris County Attorney Abbie Kamin.
The lawsuits detailed how the alleged fraudsters forged paperwork to acquire deeds to at least 10 homes and them sold or rented them to unsuspecting tenants.
In Harris County vs. Antia Martinez et al, five properties were identified as being stolen through forged notarized documents. In Harris County vs. Mario Cavazos, the defendant is alleged to have stolen five homes. Kamin’s lawsuit noted that Cavazos appears to have targeted properties where the owners were deceased, including one case where the owner died in 1992.
“While we talk about this and say things like ‘forged paperwork’ or ‘fraudulent deeds,’ I want to be really clear: these aren’t just abstract DTPA violations,” said Kamin during a press conference, referencing the Deceptive Trade Practices Act. “These are people’s homes, their livelihood, the generational wealth they have worked hard to pass on to their children. It’s home theft.”
The nine people identified in the lawsuits are Mario Cavazos, Amelia Martinez, Maria Del Rosario Gonzalez-Garcia, Antia Martinez, Francisco Diaz Martinez, Francisca Rodriguez, Jorge Villatoro, David Garcia Garcia, Juan Guevara and David Carmona.
Kamin urged homeowners to check with the Harris County Clerk’s website to ensure there are no unauthorized changes on their deeds.
“To anyone out there committing this kind of fraud: we are coming for you,” she added. “We will not let you steal from our neighbors and the residents of Harris County.”
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