Suspect in massive real estate fraud taken into custody

May 12, 2008 (The Sacramento Bee - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- -- A Madera County man at the center of one of Sacramento's largest alleged financial scams was taken into custody Monday shortly after more than 100 felony charges were read against him in a suspected scheme of false liens that cost homeowners thousands of dollars.

Jeff Allan McCoon, 42, appeared next to his attorney, Clyde Blackmon, who tried to convince Sacramento Superior Court Judge John P. Winn to continue the hearing until Thursday. McCoon did not enter a plea, and within minutes Winn ordered McCoon jailed over questions concerning the legitimacy of part of the $500,000 bail McCoon had posted last month.

He is scheduled to appear in court Thursday to potentially resolve the bail issue.

McCoon, whose trail of alleged crimes extend into Southern California and the Southwest, was arraigned on 111 charges, including counts that he falsified lien filings, illegally registered them and extorted money or threatened at least 51 residents from January 2005 through June 2006, according to the Sacramento County District Attorney's complaint.

"It obviously spans the country; it's just everyday folks who have their property and some outstanding debts ... and he's taking advantage of that," said Deputy District Attorney Keri Sternberg, who is prosecuting the case. "He's putting their homes at risk."

McCoon allegedly operated under the guise of a credit card debt collection agency, Pacific States Credit Co. of Palm Springs, which McCoon had registered with the California Secretary of State's Office in 1998, records show. Business records also show that he served as president of Sierra Consumer Acceptance Ltd., a company incorporated in the Bahamas.

McCoon, through his businesses, identified residents with outstanding debts using a company called Unifund, which buys debt information from banks.

McCoon researched individuals to identify who owned property, Sternberg said. He then allegedly falsified Uniform Commercial Code financial statements, filed liens with the county registrar's office and with the Sacramento Superior Court and then sent threatening letters to his victims, officials say, demanding money to lift the liens -- a modus operandi also familiar to prosecutors in Orange County and the Arizona Attorney General's Office, who have separate cases pending against McCoon.

Sternberg said several of the local victims only discovered the liens when they were trying to sell or refinance their homes and ended up paying McCoon out of desperation.

"They felt they had no choice," Sternberg said.

Liens can cause long-term damage to credit and could jeopardize a homeowner's ability to sell or refinance their homes, but financial experts and Sternberg point out that credit debt is never secured by one's property. Credit card debt has no real connection to real estate.

To see more of The Sacramento Bee, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.sacbee.com/. Copyright (c) 2008, The Sacramento Bee, Calif. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

Morning Coffee with TradingMarkets -- Free Newsletter

More News:   Market Updates | Stock Alerts | All Trading News | Stock Index