Real Estate Fraud
Real Estate Broker Steals Millions

According to the criminal charges, Ida Mae James of Minnosota, stole the identities of numerous clients to steal $3 million in loans.

James is a licensed real estate broker, and even though she has been charged with the felony crimes, she still has her license to continue operating in Shakopee, Minn.

(WCCO) Minneapolis -- A Shakopee, Minn. real estate broker is accused of stealing the identities and $3 million from her clients, is not in custody and still has her real estate license.

Ida Mae James, 35, has been charged with 15 felony counts of identity theft. The charges allege she filed $3 million worth of fake loans, in a case that some said serves as a warning that ID theft is not only committed by strangers.

According to Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman, James "would befriend someone. She would get their identity, buy properties that they didn't know about."
Some of the homes James purchased under her clients' names are now boarded up. The victims WCCO-TV contacted didn't wish to talk.

Investigators said James forged client names and in other cases put accounts in her name.
According to Freeman, "in one case, she promised to buy a piece of investment property for someone, said 'Don't worry. I'll pay the mortgage and pay the rents and give you your share.' She collected the rents, didn't pay the mortgage and didn't give the person any money."

Court documents say that James met many of her victims at a south Minneapolis Pentecostal church were her father-in-law is the bishop. He declined to comment extensively on the case, saying only many people at this church are very upset.

If convicted, James faces a minimum of eight years in prison.

Because this is what some call a "white collar crime," she has not been taken i nto custody. She also still has her real estate license and won't lose it unless she is convicted.

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