The San Francisco Chronicle reported that a few nice gents from the Hells Angels were allegedly accused of mortgage fraud. So what happens if they’re convicted? Foreclosure?
Good luck on foreclosing on the Hells Angels. I wouldn’t want to be the poor sucker that serves them the notice, based on what happened in Japan in the 1990s with the notorious Yakuza. In case you’re not aware who the Yakuza are, let’s just say, like the Hells Angels, you really don’t want to upset these guys:
“When banks try to foreclose on (a property), the yakuza are the ones who prevent them from doing so. In most cases, they’re asked by the building owner to move in rent-free, because nobody will try to buy it in an auction if yakuza are living in some of the rooms. If the auction is postponed, then the owner can continue to earn money from rent paid by the other tenants. Those who owe money are making use of the yakuza.”
Confronting the gangsters can be dangerous.
…Yakuza tactics include verbal harassment, veiled threats and techniques such as fouling properties with manure, “accidentally” crashing into buildings with dump trucks and arson.
In a 1994 case widely presumed to be tied to efforts at bad-loan collection, Kazufumi Hatanaka, manager of Sumitomo Bank’s branch in the city of Nagoya, was murdered execution-style, shot in the head outside the door of his 10th-floor apartment.
I’m sure the mortgage broker involved in the above Hells Angels real estate deal, or for that matter the real estate agent, have nothing to worry about.
File under: New meaning to the old adage “Real estate is a cut throat business.”
Read more: Japan mob muddies up foreclosures.
