Real estate agent pleads guilty in resale scheme with Danville ties

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A former Lafayette real estate agent pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal charges related to a complicated scheme to fraudulently obtain the title to homes and then resell them at market prices, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Robert Jacobsen, 69, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering in connection with a plan to use what prosecutors called “sham companies” and lawsuits to make it look, falsely, as if large mortgage liens connected to two homes were invalidated, including one in Danville.

Prosecutors said Jacobsen was to able convince the homes’ owners to sign over the titles to him on the false premise that he could remove the liens, sell the homes and make “some payment to the original home owner.”

To accomplish this, Jacobsen placed the title to these homes in shell companies he created and then fraudulently sued those same companies, claiming the liens were invalid.

Jacobsen failed to inform the court that he controlled the companies on both sides of these lawsuits.

He then was able to enter into court-approved judgments with the shell companies he controlled “purporting to invalidate the mortgage liens on these homes,” prosecutors said.

Jacobsen then sold one home in Danville for $540,000 and one in San Francisco for $1.2 million and used at least some of the money to buy a luxury sailboat, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

In December 2015, Jacobsen was indicted by a federal grand jury on 13 counts of wire fraud and 9 counts of money laundering.

He faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and a fine of $500,000 when he’s sentenced in U.S. District Court in San Francisco on Nov. 15.

— Kiley Russell, Bay City News