HOUSTON – A lawsuit ordering more than $1,000,000 in relief and penalties has been filed by the Harris County Attorney on behalf of victims of a crime known as “home title theft.”
Wondering what home title theft is? It’s a white-collar crime that targets the title to your home.
Through a surprisingly easy process, criminals can file fraudulent paperwork that essentially removes your name from your home’s title and assigns it to another name.
READ MORE: Here’s how Harris County will mitigate rising deed fraud, scams
This is the same crime that KPRC 2 uncovered while probing a worldwide surrogacy scandal that was rooted in Houston.
Through court documents, KPRC 2 learned that one of the suspects in this case was also named on titles fraudulently altered, effectively stealing homes right out from under unsuspecting victims, according to records.
On Monday, Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee filed a lawsuit against two Greater Houston men, accusing them of swindling victims out of their homes.
This includes a 70-year-old former HISD teacher, Wanda Jackson.
“That was 47 years of hard work going like a puff of smoke,” Jackson said. “Instead of helping me, he tricked me into signing my entire home over to him. Not only did I lose my home, but I lost my personal memories and precious items that money can’t replace, like an oil painting of my mother and other items.”
She ended up losing her home in Houston and her mother’s home in East Texas to an operation allegedly ran by Malcolm Pryor and James Mayer, according to court filings.
“They were using fake documents to steal people’s homes. They were stealing people’s homes out from under them,” said Menefee. “They were refusing to release escrow funds. And they were running a number of other scams. The Harris County Attorney’s office took action. We sued that company. That case is now pending, but the owner of that company has filed for bankruptcy.”
