Armed only with a pen, a San Francisco man allegedly forged grant deeds transferring three condominiums worth $7.5 million from the woman who owned them to himself, then took out $2.2 million in loans against the properties.
The San Francisco District Attorney's office announced today that they've charged Winston Lum, 45, with 16 felony counts, including grand theft, identity theft, offering false or forged instruments for record and attempted grand theft.
Authorities accuse Lum of recording with the San Francisco Assessor’s Office three forged grant deeds to real property located at the One Rincon Hill condominiums, worth approximately $7.5 million, that fraudulently transferred titles to himself in Jan. 2009. The defendant was then able to successfully take out $2.2 million in loans against those properties.
The true owner of the properties did not know the defendant and was not aware that her properties had been transferred, but became suspicious when she began receiving mail for the defendant at her address, according the the DA's office.
The victim soon discovered that her properties had been fraudulently conveyed to the defendant and she reported the theft to the San Francisco Police Department.
“The defendant’s scheme to forge documents and claim legal ownership of the victim’s properties is an act of hubris difficult to fathom,” said District Attorney Kamala D. Harris in a press release. “The San Francisco Police Department’s Economic Crimes Bureau should be commended for its fine work in building this case and putting an end to this fraud.”
A $7.5 million DA warrant was issued for the defendant on February 3, 2010. The defendant was arrested the next day at his mother’s home in the Sunset district.
Lum is scheduled to be arraigned on February 9, 2010, in the Thomas J. Cahill Hall of Justice.
Bail remains at $7.5 million.
Lieutenant Jones Wong, Officer-In-Charge of the SFPD Economic Crime Unit, stated in the press release that "the arrest of Winston Lum is the result of a detailed and exhaustive investigation by Inspectors Greg Ovanessian and Robert Steger of an elaborate and complex scheme to defraud a San Francisco citizen of her property."
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