After serving prison stints for rape and armed robbery, Edwin Evans reinvented himself as a financial adviser. Driving around town in a Lexus sedan and pin-striped suit, he promised cash-strapped homeowners that he could help them stave off foreclosure.
But after Evans was featured in a 2005 Tribune series on mortgage fraud, federal authorities opened a criminal investigation. On Thursday, prosecutors announced an indictment charging Evans with fraud.
Federal prosecutors allege that Evans, 41, used phony documents and bogus credit reports to prepare two home loan applications for a Chicago woman in 2002. A company Evans controlled took unspecified cash payments from those land deals, the indictment said.
Evans could not be located for comment Thursday afternoon. He was not in custody and his current address and exact whereabouts were unknown to the U.S. attorney’s office, said government spokesman Randall Samborn.
The Tribune series put a spotlight on mortgage fraud, a growing crime in which swindlers use high-tech identity theft and face-to-face scams to secure loans that are never repaid. Those articles detailed civil lawsuits and land records in which several homeowners accused Evans and his companies of fraud — allegations he denied.
Federal prosecutors have already indicted two attorneys featured in the 2005 Tribune series, and state lawmakers passed the so-called Mortgage Fraud Rescue Act. Since that law went into effect this year, Illinois Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan has brought civil lawsuits against two mortgage firms and their owners.
In addition, U.S. Sens. Barack Obama and Dick Durbin introduced a bill that would ratchet up enforcement and create a national database of brokers who have been disciplined. That bill did not pass, but Obama and Durbin reintroduced the so-called STOP FRAUD Act again this year.
Homes lost, not rescued
Evans specialized in controversial bailout deals, in which a homeowner deeded his house to Evans or an investor for a year, believing the reprieve would allow time to get out of debt and repurchase the home with a fresh mortgage. But the home is often lost in the process, not rescued, court records show. Because the houses typically fall vacant, the crime can threaten entire neighborhoods, as well as the homeowners and lenders.
With a dollar sign tattooed on his right hand, Evans had an unlikely pedigree as a mortgage broker. As a teenager, he was repeatedly found delinquent for burglarizing his Morgan Park neighbors. He spent 7 years in Illinois prisons for raping a 14-year-old girl, then 4 more for hijacking a delivery truck at gunpoint. Paroled in 1999, Evans went into the mortgage business.
Amid Chicago’s red-hot real estate market, as low interest rates and rising property values touched off a flurry of refinancing, he soon ran companies that offered financial advice, prepared loans for homeowners and invested in property. But his property deals often unraveled amid contradictory records and lawsuits.
In a 2003 civil lawsuit, Evans was accused of defrauding a mentally disabled man who turned to him for financial advice. Evans arranged for a $94,000 mortgage on the man’s Northwest Side bungalow, then took $65,000 of the mortgage proceeds, court records show.
The man lost the property after the mortgage went unpaid. State regulators declared that 2002 mortgage “fraudulent,” levying a $10,000 fine against the south suburban mortgage company where Evans worked at the time. But Evans was not charged with any crime or disciplined by regulators.
Dawn Lawkowski-Keller, an attorney for the Cook County public guardian, waged an 18-month lawsuit that forced Evans to pay back the $65,000 in that case, and she welcomed Thursday’s indictment.
“It’s a long time coming and I hope it puts a serious crimp in his fraudulent businesses,” she said.
Owns several businesses
Evans’ business ventures certainly have been active.
Records show three of his firms — Class Act Construction, the Evans & Hall Realty Investment Corp. and E&I Funding — have taken title to at least 17 Chicago-area properties since 2000. And last year, Evans founded a new title firm called Landmark Title Service Inc.
Still, he faces numerous legal challenges.
In bankruptcy documents filed by his wife in January, she and Evans claimed debts of more than $1.1 million.
In a separate pending civil lawsuit, a South Side family is accusing Evans of defrauding them in a mortgage deal, which he denied. That family said Evans approached them after they fell behind on a $104,000 home loan and convinced them that he could refinance and repair their property, then return it to them in a year. They claim they lost the property in the deal.
And last month, Cook County prosecutors charged Evans with failing to register as a sex offender, a misdemeanor. Evans had told authorities he was living in Matteson, but business records listed him in Olympia Fields. He re-registered with his Olympia Fields address but the charges are still pending.
More Top Picks Jabra Elite 8 Active
A rising star
In 2001, Evans was hired by Greater Investment Mortgage Corp., a rapidly growing south suburban company that arranges loans for homeowners. He quickly became its branch manager. The current indictment alleges that Evans was at Greater Investment in 2002 when he used phony documents to help a woman obtain two mortgages for homes in Will County and Chicago. Separate land records show the mortgages totaled about $250,000.
Prosecutors allege that Evans used phony employment forms and pay stubs to support the loan application. Evans paid the woman to participate in the scheme, prosecutors allege, but she was not charged or identified by name in the indictment.
Evans has not yet entered a plea, and U.S. attorney’s office spokesman Samborn said Evans “does not have an attorney that we know of.” The wire fraud count carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, in addition to a forfeiture provision, Samborn said.
———-