Charges dropped against Bellingham Couple

The state has dropped charges against a Bellingham couple over a foreclosed Lummi Island home. Regulators had accused Peter and Julia Torkild over committing an illegal “foreclosure rescue scheme” that allowed them to take control of the home under the guise of helping the owners avoid foreclosure. A civil case against the couple has also been thrown out.
____

It slowly became apparent to the prosecutor that she made a big mistake when she tried to convince a judge that rent paid by the Johnstons after Julia paid cash for the house at a foreclosure sale, should be considered “stolen”, even thought he sale was deemed good and valid. The prosecutor claimed that Julia “stole” the house by buying it at the foreclosure sale, and then “stole” each month’s rent while the Johnston’s were getting a commercially reasonable value for the rent they paid. The judge questioned that argument, and the prosecutor quit the Attorney General’s office right afterward, apparently to avoid having to deal with the mess she had started. All charges were subsequently dropped by the prosecutor taking over the case.

L shares your skepticism:

These claims of scams are far fetched because the only way to transfer title is with a Quit claim deed or Warranty deed, and you have to have a lot of equity for anybody to want it. Also there are so many people coming to your door you have to have some inclination something’s wrong. A lot of people say they were scammed and took an offer of a loan so they can stay in the house- they can’t pay the original loan, so how they expect to pay this one is anybody’s guess. The people that offer these loans make no claims these are low interest loans, and the ones I’ve seen, the interest rate is highlighted in bold. But just as people took a first and a second they couldn’t pay for in the beginning, they will now try to make this one work.