FBI Probes Va. Company's Workers in House Swindle

"There was never anything fraudulent," he said.

He said Hetrick was a client of 1st American.

David J. Oliverio, the president of 1st American, said he was aware that the FBI had been looking into the theft of the properties but was not aware of anything other than that.

"Bottom line, we've never been contacted by the FBI on any issue, let alone that issue," he said. He said the employees cited in the lawsuits left the company long before it closed.

The company "had no idea that anything like this was going on," he said. "If we had any inkling of that, it would not have happened."

He said if any improprieties occurred, it was when the deeds were signed, not when the loans were issued.

Oliverio said that 1st American folded because it expanded too quickly, then bumped up against a troubled mortgage market. He said the closing had "zero to do" with the investigation.

Adam Lee, head of the local FBI squad that oversees mortgage fraud investigations, declined to comment on the investigation.

A second vacant property under FBI scrutiny is on 10th Street NW, according to a lawsuit filed in D.C. Superior Court by the original owner, Eugene Tucker of Virginia.

In that case, two people claiming to be Tucker and his wife presented fake Virginia licenses to a notary at a title company during a sales closing, according to the suit. They then signed papers to sell the property to Hetrick's company, Lion Real Estate Development and Management.

Tucker's lawsuit refers to the people with the fake licenses as "unknown" and "Impostors."

Lion Real Estate allegedly paid $120,000 for the property, but more than 90 percent went "back into the bank accounts of Hetrick and one of his business partners," according to the Tucker lawsuit.

A $37,500 check was made out to the Tuckers. But it was never given to them, according to the lawsuit. "In other words, Hetrick did not actually buy the property, he stole it," the suit said.

Three months later, Hetrick sold the property to David Swain, a 1st American Mortgage employee, for $810,000.

"Swain had no money" and "sought to flip the property" for $1 million, the Tucker lawsuit alleged.

So Swain borrowed money, including $500,000 in a loan arranged by Romanick of 1st American Mortgage and financed by Southern Management, according to the lawsuits.

On May 19, 2005, Hetrick made $636,198 from the sale. Days later, he wired $460,000 to a Russian bank account under his wife's maiden name, Svetlana Nikiforova, Hetrick confirmed during questioning in a deposition in the his bankruptcy case.

A month later, in June 2005, the Tuckers "discovered the fraudulent conveyance when a neighbor spotted a real estate agent on the property," according to their suit.

Last June, D.C. Superior Court Judge Lynn Leibovitz issued an order saying that the signatures on the deeds were forgeries and that the property belonged to Tucker, not Swain.

Now, Tucker is trying to recoup six-figure legal fees from the title company and the notary who authorized the signatures, claiming negligence. A bankruptcy judge has ordered Hetrick to pay Tucker more than $200,000 in damages.

Swain's attorney, Maura Molloy Grant, declined comment. Court documents filed on Swain's behalf in the Tucker lawsuit claimed that he was a victim of fraud, not involved in one.

Staff researcher Eddy Palanzo contributed to this report.