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This morning’s Washington Post also covers the colossal mortgage fraud bust in Fairfax County first reported yesterday.
Local police have been investigating the operation since 2007, according to the Post. The alleged mastermind in the scheme is Ruben Rojas, 30, a Vienna-based real estate agent, who would recruit straw buyers—-people who lent their name to purchasing homes, but never intended to live in them—-to acquire the houses and then convert the properties into packed boarding houses with tons of occupants living virtually on top of each other.
[U.S. Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.)] said the strike team had investigated more than 400 homes, with 140 referred for criminal prosecution and 143 more for civil court action. Fairfax Sheriff’s Capt. Karen McClellan, a member of the code strike team, entered many of those houses.