Mortgage advisers attempt to collect rent from neighbors after FBI raid in Union City, California

May 6, 2005

Three months after the FBI raided the offices of the Dorean Group in Union City, California, neighboring companies in the same office park have received letters claiming that rent for the office park should now be paid to the Dorean Group. The owner of the office park, Hanover Properties, insists that they have not sold the park and called the Dorean Group's claim fraudulent.

The first letter from the Dorean Group, dated May 2nd, 2005, purported to "inform [the tenants] of the change in ownership of the property [the tenants] now occupy," and asked that "payment of rents be sent" to the principals of the Dorean Group. The letter also included notarized documents authorizing the sale by an alleged agent of the current owner, Hanover Properties, a "Julia Pantibratyuk."

On the subsequent day, Hanover Properties responded in a letter to the other tenants of the park. They noted that they had not sold the office park to the Dorean Group, but that they had evicted the Dorean Group from the premises on April 26. They added that, "We do not know who Julia Pantbratyuk [sic] is."

The letters were provided to Wikinews reporter Pingswept by an employee of one of the companies in the office park.

Background on the Dorean Group
According to the Sacramento Bee, the Dorean Group says that it helps homeowners "wipe your mortgage off the books ... by executing a series of maneuvers with deeds and other real estate documents." U.S. District Judge William Alsup called the firm's work, "an elaborate Internet scam", said the Bee.

Kurt Johnson, one of the principals of the Dorean Group, disagrees. "We're on the cutting edge of legal theory ... It's in the law books, but no one's had the courage to bring it out," he told the Bee.

The Greater Cleveland Better Business Bureau issued an alert on its website in January about the Dorean Group. According to the bureau, the Dorean Group was "believed to be victimizing area lenders while leaving homeowners facing dire consequences."