Chatsworth Woman Among Pair Held in $2 Million Foreclosure Scheme

Two women, including one from Chatsworth, were arrested Wednesday on charges of using a real estate investment fraud scheme to cheat 17 Vietnamese-American clients out of $2 million.

Loan Thituong Nguyen, 43, of Westminster, and Lynn Eichenberger, 42, of Chatsworth, are each charged with 15 counts of grand theft, two counts of money laundering and one count of conspiracy to commit grand theft, with sentence-enhancing allegations for property loss of more than $1 million, according to the Orange County District Attorney's Office.

Nguyen, a licensed real estate broker who manages Suncoast Mortgage Corp. and Suncoast Investment Realty, and Eichenberger recruited clients to give them money to invest in foreclosed properties to which they had no claims, prosecutors allege.

Victims were told their money was going toward paying half of the balance owed on a property's mortgage, prosecutors allege.

When clients confronted the defendants because there was no return on their investments, the two would say the deal fell through, according to prosecutors, who said the scheme was operated between August and December 2009.

Bail was set at $2 million for both defendants.

Nguyen, who also faces additional charges of forgery and false recording of documents, faces up to 24 years in prison if convicted, while Eichenberger would face nearly 23 years behind bars, according to prosecutors.

"I want to applaud the district attorney and his staff and the Westminster Police Department for a tremendous job in proving that real estate fraud will not be tolerated in Orange County," county Supervisor Janet Nguyen said.

"Too many people in the Vietnamese-American community have been devastated by perpetrators who took advantage of them," she said. "Thanks to our county and local public safety agencies diligently working together, these people will no longer prey on anyone, especially in Orange County."

-- City News Service