The smooth-talking man with ardent eyes and a abutting handshake strode into the canton annal architecture downtown. It was aboriginal 2015, and for the abutting year and a half, he would acknowledgment abreast weekly, anniversary time in the aggregation of a altered actuality he was affairs a home to.
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The man's name was Carl Govan Jr., and the houses he awash in southern Dallas were mostly boarded-up, austere and vacant. But for his poor and sometimes undocumented buyers, the shells of homes represented their adventitious at the American dream. The buyers anticipation they had no acumen to agnosticism the affable man clutching the abode keys, with his yes-sirs and no-ma'ams. Afterwards all, they were at a government building, accepting government-stamped affidavit they believed accepted ownership.
These backdrop on Memory Lane in Pleasant Grove; North Atoll Drive and Vandervort Drive in East Oak Cliff; and Tioga Street in far southern Dallas Canton were amid dozens circuitous in a absolute acreage artifice betray targeting accessible bodies in Dallas.
(Rose Baca/Staff photographer)
It wasn't until weeks or months afterwards the buyers had handed over the banknote — in abounding cases, their activity accumulation — that they abstruse they didn't absolutely own the homes they'd paid for. Govan had no appropriate to advertise them the houses because he and his associated companies — Mr. B&B Acquisition and One Pine — never endemic them in the aboriginal place, authorities say.
Govan, 29, has pleaded not guilty. But prosecutors say he and his assembly pulled off one of the bigger accepted home scams in Dallas Canton in contempo years, ripping off homeowners and buyers on as abounding as 46 properties. The declared scammers took at atomic $320,000 from victims and were about to abutting on addition $223,500 annual of deals aback badge intervened in 2016, according to a Dallas Morning News analysis of accomplishment annal and cloister documents.
"They preyed on people's dreams to get a home at an affordable amount and assignment to fix it up," said Trey Bunch, a appropriate prosecutor on the case. "They would acquisition a acutely alone home and adapt abstracts and afresh advertise it to some biting actuality who aloof wants to accomplish a bigger activity for their family."
Using affected names, artificial signatures and a agent seal, Govan exploited vulnerabilities in his targets and in the canton annal system, prosecutors say. In Texas, anyone with a notarized and active accomplishment can book acreage transfers. No one vets them for accuracy. Govan's declared arrangement revolved about battered homes because the accurate owners had generally alone the backdrop to decay. Bodies who purchased those homes from Govan included an benighted woman and several families of undocumented immigrants. He told them they were extenuative money by alienated adorned appellation companies and aloof activity beeline to the canton annal building, they said.
"We absent everything," said Abel Castro, 45, whose ancestors of four, forth with his neighbor's ancestors of nine, absent their southern Dallas homes in August. "We feel powerless."
Carl Govan, apparent actuality on Aug. 2, at the Dallas Canton Jail, is accused of scamming several families in to affairs homes that he didn't accept the appropriate to sell.
(Ashley Landis/Staff Photographer)
Govan acclimated a cord of aliases, according to assemblage and badge records: He's gone by Carl Johnson, Robert Winters and Kenneth Dixon, sometimes introducing himself to the aforementioned actuality on altered canicule with altered names.
In a bastille interview, Govan accepted affairs the houses but claimed he had no abstraction they were affected sales. Govan said he was agape by two abstracted administration at two abstracted jobs. At both B&B Acquisition and One Pine, Govan said, he worked as a acreage manager, demography photos of the backdrop for his administration to use in Craigslist ads, afresh demography abstracts and keys from his administration to the customers.
He additionally claimed he was unfairly targeted for his activism with the anti-police atrocity accumulation Abutting Generation Action Network. He declared himself as a committed bedmate and ancestor to bristles kids, a aegis aggregation administrator and a pastor at a church, God's Intensive Care Unit.
"The concrete affirmation doesn't appearance that I did these crimes," Govan said. "The concrete affirmation shows that the individuals who brought these properties, these transfers, they were alike impaired abundant to put their names on them. They showed their identification cards. So why am I incarcerated? That's why we feel this is a avenging and awful prosecution."
Besides Govan, authorities accept answerable alone one added actuality in the case. Joshua McCullough pleaded accusable to actuality an abettor of Govan's and fraudulently affairs one abode several times, annal show. Badge letters call Govan as the mastermind, admitting — one who enlisted his accompany in accusation of assignment to advice him.
Govan is set for balloon abutting March. If convicted, he faces bristles years to activity in prison.
Govan hasn't been accustomed in his father's home for years. Admitting Carl Govan Sr. smiles as he remembers his son's absorbing means — and how he'd comedy preacher as a kid — he additionally said he can't assurance him. Not aback Govan blanket his stepmother's checkbook at age 14, and spent her money about town, he said.
Govan Sr. and his wife apprenticed charges, but they didn't accept the boyhood was alone responsible. Govan's mother and grandfather, who are both now deceased, accomplished him how to arrangement and steal, said Govan Sr., who works as a business administrator in DeSoto.
The accuse on Govan Jr.'s diffuse bent almanac mirror his mother's and grandfather's confidence records. Sherry Allen was bedevilled of a accusation her son now faces: dedicated beheading of a certificate by deception, or lying to accept an official almanac filed. Annal appearance Govan's grandfather, John P. Allen, an auto boutique owner, was bedevilled of analytical with government annal and application alone checks, affected allowance abstracts and affected agent analysis reports.
Carl Govan talks about his case on Aug. 2, 2017 at the Dallas Canton Jail. Govan is accused of scamming several families in to affairs homes that he didn't accept the appropriate to sell.
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(Ashley Landis/Staff Photographer)
Carl Govan talks about his case on Aug. 2, 2017, at the Dallas Canton Jail. Govan is accused of scamming several families in to affairs homes that he didn't accept the appropriate to sell.
(Ashley Landis/Staff Photographer)
Carl Govan holds up abstracts on his case on Aug. 2, 2017, at the Dallas Canton Jail. Govan is accused of scamming several families in to affairs homes that he didn't accept the appropriate to sell.
(Ashley Landis/Staff Photographer)
"I don't apperceive if he could accept had any dreams" for a accustomed profession, Govan Sr. said of his son. "If he had any, they was all taken abroad by his mom and his grandfather. Aggregate I absolute in him as a kid, they would acquaint him: 'No, that's not the way it works. It's about fast money. It's about dollars.'"
The adventure with his stepmother's checks wasn't the alone time Govan has been accused of victimizing his family. In 2010, cloister annal appearance Govan — activity by the name Carl Allen and using his mother's beginning name — awash to a affiliated brace an East Oak Cliff acreage that his backward great-uncle had larboard to Govan's cousins, not to him. Govan pleaded accusable to annexation of added than $20,000 and went to bastille for two years.
Getting bent didn't assume to avert Govan from absolute acreage fraud, prosecutors say. Once freed, authorities say, he went aback to the advantageous crime, but this time he finessed his address application a web of affected names, companies and harbinger sellers.
The boarded-up bifold on Pine Street in South Dallas was home to squatters and biologic addicts. It didn't accept plumbing, floors or ceilings. But aback Jose Ines Palma aboriginal saw the brindled anatomy in 2015, he envisioned the nice little home he and his sons could build. He had met Govan at the home afterwards acknowledging to a Craigslist ad. They agreed on a price: $8,500 cash.
Govan afresh met Palma at the Dallas Canton annal architecture and they filed a accomplishment assuming Darron Brooks and B&B Acquisition were appointment the acreage to Palma. Palma and his ancestors confused in. Eventually they were nine people, including a babyish built-in with a astringent bearing defect.
The Palma ancestors stood in advanced of their abode on Pine Street in Dallas in July. They begin out that the man they bought the home from was not absolutely the antecedent owner. Admitting authoritative thousand of dollars of repairs, they do not own the house. Their home was auctioned off on Aug. 1.
(Ashley Landis/Staff Photographer)
Alexandra Maldonado, 18, kisses her daughter, Delilah Palma, 1, who has a action declared encephalocele.
(Ashley Landis/Staff Photographer)
Jose Palma (left) and his ancestor watch an NBC 5 adventure on their ancestors in August in their Pine Street active room.
(Ashley Landis/Staff Photographer)
A few weeks afterwards the Palmas confused in, Abel Castro bought the alone abode abutting door for $7,000 from Govan. Castro additionally responded to a Craigslist ad, afresh met Govan at the annal building, breadth Govan filed the deed, said both Govan and Castro.
Both families, which accommodate some crooked immigrants, adapted their homes themselves, cloudburst abounding hours and tens of bags of dollars into repairs.
County annal appearance that B&B Acquisition had filed accomplishments canicule beforehand appointment both Pine Street houses from their accurate owners, Courtney and Janell Hicks, to B&B. But an advocate for the Hickses, Randy Taub, said his clients' signatures were artificial and they never agreed to advertise their properties.
After Courtney Hicks approved to bang out the Palmas and Castros, they filed a lawsuit, forth with three added families that said they were additionally scammed by B&B Acquisition and Govan. But the plaintiffs absent their homes admitting the lawsuit. Hicks declared defalcation and his lender awash the two Pine Street homes at bargain in August.
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"We're devastated because aback we confused in, this abode didn't accept annihilation — it was aloof a structure," Jose Palma said through tears. "We put aggregate we had into this. We spent all our accumulation and formed abounding hours until 9, 10, 11, midnight — afterwards a abounding day's assignment outside."
Jose Palma talks about his family's home in July in Dallas. The Palmas had abstruse that the man who took their money for the home was not absolutely the owner. Their home was auctioned off Aug. 1.
(Ashley Landis/Staff Photographer)
Jose Palma (left) and his son Jose Palma allocution about their family's ordeal. They begin out that the man who awash them their Pine Street home was not the owner.
(Ashley Landis/Staff Photographer)
From jail, Govan said he acquainted apologetic for the families, but he maintained his innocence. He insisted he didn't apperceive B&B had no appropriate to advertise the homes, and that he was afterward orders from his boss, Darron Brooks. Govan has afresh the accusation adjoin Brooks in cloister testimony.
"I was absolutely blind of this circuitous arrangement that Mr. Brooks had activity on," Govan said. "I ambition that he would allocution to an investigator, about-face himself in and possibly advice these families compensate 'cause allegedly there were several families that were agape out of their money."
Bunch, the prosecutor, said Govan may accept had accomplices, but the affirmation shows that he was "the capital key player." The suspects acclimated a array of affected names on their records. Investigators are still attractive into whether Brooks was involved. Efforts to adeptness Brooks were unsuccessful.
In Govan's telling, the B&B Acquisition appointment bankrupt abruptly afterwards Telemundo ran a adventure in the abatement of 2015 about the immigrant families actuality scammed. Govan said Brooks never alternate his buzz calls and deleted his Facebook account. Govan said he started alive for addition absolute acreage company, One Pine, run by a woman declared Raussa Toney. He declared she happened to be active the aforementioned betray as Brooks — which, again, he claimed he didn't apperceive about until afterwards the fact.
Toney didn't acknowledgment calls gluttonous comment. She has not been charged. But a badge address says she was Govan's business abettor at One Pine and sometimes went by an alias, Brenda Thompson.
The arrangement unraveled in January 2016, aback a Delaware-based absolute acreage company, One Pine VIII LLC, beatific workers to its alone acreage at 1577 N. Atoll Drive in South Dallas. The workers begin tenants active there, who said their freeholder was Sergio Mendez. The aggregation apparent that that abode and addition one the abutting owned, at 204 Billy Wickliffe in Wilmer, had been awash to Mendez afterwards its permission by addition assuming as the company, according to a Mesquite badge report.
Mendez and his business abettor told badge that they bought the houses from a aggregation declared One Pine that had an appointment on Interstate 635 by Forest Lane. They had bankrupt at a appellation company, which badge afterwards found had been agape by Govan's affected documents.
When badge went to the North Dallas office, the freeholder articular the photo of Govan as the guy who'd paid two months' rent, according to the badge report. The freeholder told badge the appointment had been abandoned for two weeks and she was attractive for the man because his hire check had bounced.
Mesquite badge declared Govan, and he agreed to accommodated with them. But he blew off that meeting, the address says. The afterward day, annal show, he awash Erika Denova a abode at 1589 N. Atoll Drive in southern Dallas for $22,000.
Denova, 42, met Govan through a neighbor. She capital to cast houses and become a freeholder as a antecedent of income. Denova is disabled — she was afflicted in a car accident as a child, has attack and never abstruse to apprehend or write. She acquainted she was accepting a abundant accord on the homes Govan was selling. So she absitively to advertise a bifold that she endemic and use that money to advance in added backdrop from Govan.
Erika Denova poses for a photograph at her home in South Dallas on Aug. 23, 2017. Denova was one of dozens of victims of a absolute acreage artifice betray targeting accessible bodies in southern Dallas Canton in contempo years.
(Rose Baca/Staff Photographer)
All told, Denova bought at atomic six homes from Govan. In April 2016, she showed up to the abode on Atoll Drive to alpha accomplishing renovations and begin addition guy there with a dumpster.
"What are you doing?" she asked him. "This is my house."
"No, I bought this house," the man replied, according to Denova.
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It affronted out that Govan and his declared accomplice, McCullough, had awash the abode to three altered buyers— and had fatigued up a arrangement for a fourth sale, according to police. McCullough pleaded accusable and accustomed acquittal in barter for accordant to affirm adjoin Govan. McCullough testified during his accusable appeal that Govan took $19,000 and $21,000 from two of the sales out of his coffer account.
Now, Denova said her seizures accept developed added common as a aftereffect of accent from accident all her money. The burghal is sending her notices ceaseless to cut grass and pay taxes on homes she bought from Govan that she doesn't apperceive if she absolutely owns now. And she's affronted at the canton agent for acceptance the frauds to continue.
"Anyone can appear assurance any of those affidavit downtown," Denova said. "How appear you let bodies do this with no IDs?"
Investigators are still aggravating to actuate how the accomplishments were notarized — whether a agent was complicit or incompetent, or whether the suspects blanket a agent seal. The allowance of one agent appears on abounding of the abstracts at issue. The agent and his advocate didn't acknowledgment calls gluttonous comment. The agent told badge he absent his allowance at one point, Bunch said. There was no almanac of him advertisement the accident to the Texas secretary of state, as required, a agent said.
The rubber-stamping done by canton recording offices isn't altered to Texas. In a acclaimed case, The New York Daily News transferred the $2 billion Empire Accompaniment Architecture to itself to appearance how accessible absolute acreage heists can be. Beforehand this month, two men were accused of authoritative $4 actor by affairs homes they didn't own in North Texas and the Houston area.
"It's an accessible aperture to accomplish fraud," said Michael Payma, an advocate who won a accusation afterwards his client's acreage was fraudulently transferred by B&B Acquisition. "I never accepted why bodies go and rob banks — all you've got to do is do this, and you can booty $10,000, $20,000, $30,000."
Some states do added to assure homeowners and buyers from fraud. For example, California and Illinois crave notaries to almanac thumbprints for all absolute acreage transactions.
However, best states, including Texas, don't.
Dallas Canton Agent John Warren said he can't convention his own rules alfresco of accompaniment law requirements of a beginning agent allowance and the seller's signature. Plus, he wouldn't accept the agents or adeptness to verify every document's accuracy. The alone way the clerk's appointment can advice anticipate fraud, he said, is through its chargeless annual that allows owners to accept alerts if addition files a record related to their property.
While Govan dedicated himself, he accustomed the canton annal arrangement is accomplished for scammers.
"Once you booty a certificate into the canton clerk's appointment and book it, they don't do any analysis on it," Govan said, abacus that they should verify the advice better.
Carl Govan, who was photographed at the Dallas Canton Bastille in August, is accused of scamming several families into affairs homes that he didn't accept the appropriate to sell.
(Ashley Landis/Staff Photographer)
Carl Govan holds up arraignments on his case at the Dallas Canton Jail. He is accused of scamming several families in to affairs homes that he didn't accept the appropriate to sell.
(Ashley Landis/Staff Photographer)
After Denova accomplished she'd been scammed, she approved calling Govan, but he never answered her calls. She heard he was alive aegis at a Cabin 6, so she went there. The agent told her that the cabin was advantageous Govan as a contractor, but the guards had complained that he wasn't advantageous them, Denova said.
The badge were called. They added on addition accusation to Govan's growing rap sheet: assuming aegis afterwards a license.
Asked about that charge, Govan offered a altered account.
"It wasn't with me, it was with my ex-girlfriend," he said. "We had started striping cartage afore we absolutely got an absolute license."
He shrugged and affronted the chat aback to the affair of him actuality the absolute victim, unfairly bound up. He vowed to advice captive his above administration who'd masterminded the crimes — if alone they'd let him go free.
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