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Report: Fraudulent property flipping bloomed in boom

Associated Press file photo

Since 2000, more than 50,000 Florida properties flipped under circumstances that fraud investigators identify as suspicious - where homes, vacant land or commercial properties were bought and resold in 90 days or less and increased in value by at least 30 percent, the Sarsota Herald-Tribune found.

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By MICHAEL BRAGA, CHRIS DAVIS and MATTHEW DOIG

Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Published: July 19, 2009

Fraudulent property flipping ran rampant during this decade's housing boom, with $10 billion in suspicious deals in Florida alone, a Sarasota Herald-Tribune investigation has found.

The deals - many of them inflated sales among friends, family and business associates - drove up property values and tax bills during the boom, federal bank bailouts and failures after the boom, and fueled the foreclosure wave that has gutted property values.

Read the series at heraldtribune.com

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