Wells Fargo's Malibu home is listed for $21.5 million

The bank-owned Malibu house allegedly used by a Wells Fargo executive to entertain family and friends appeared on the Multiple Listing Service late Friday, listed for sale at $21.5 million.

Listing details show the home's ownership when it was transferred in May and list the price then as $12 million.

Built in 1990, the two-story beachfront house has three bedrooms and four bathrooms in about 3,800 square feet of living space and sits on a 8,708-square-foot lot. Beyond the ocean and white-water views and sandy beach practically out the back door, the Malibu Colony house has fireplaces in the living room and master bedroom, central air conditioning and carpeted and hardwood floors. There is a bar, a breakfast bar, a dining area, a gym, a loft and covered and open-air patio areas. The gated community has 24-hour-a-day guard service.

Wells Fargo has fired the executive accused of using the house. Details are in the story at latimes.com.

Chad Rogers of Hilton & Hyland, Beverly Hills, has the listing.

-- Lauren Beale

Photo: The house in Malibu Colony that a Wells Fargo executive allegedly used for parties. Credit: Ringo H.W. Chiu / For The Times

Thoughts? Comments?

Comments

[robert mendel]

A 12 million dollar beach house becomes a 21 million dollar beach house after a super famous news story breaks about a bank executive getting fired for misusing it for parties after foreclosure. Wonder what the exec's cut of the markup will be ? Nice work if you can get it. I've heard of houses 'staged' for sale, but this brings a whole new meaning to that practice!

[Ace]

From 12 million to 21 million in just a few months? I guess I am priced out of the Malibu market forever!

[Big Fella]

Now I get it. The Cheronda Guyton episode was a cleaver plot by Wells Fargo to bring attention to to this property so they could jack up the asking price. Those weren't Cheronda's friends and family being ferried between yacht and beach house, they were Wells Fargo majority shareholders.

[sam]

Gads - is Chad Rogers the OCD agent with that
awful Beatles hair from the TV show? If so,
I think this is a perfect pairing. :)

[Laker]

BS.
Appreciation of $9.5M over 4 months or 80%....please give me a break.
They did all these circus to get local and sure national visibility and free advertising...
However....they are not advertising some median house that can drive 50 investors in a bidding war in nice area of Pasadena over a $500,000 house.
How many buyers are out there with $20M to spend??? I'm sure they are smart enough not to touch it. If you are lucky to be one of those, you are already in the market and have some RE agents looking...
Also, if the place didn't sell for $12M in May (on the MLS....) why do you think it will sell for $21.5M...
Mark my words, I say it will sell for $8M tops!

[Jolie]

Wells Fargo should be sued by the government with possible criminal charges to Guyton and her superiors for this egregious incident. But with the strong banking lobby (who are probably sleeping with our congressmen), it won't happen.

[Seth]

What about the sleazy Wells Fargo Exec?
When is Wells Fargo going to hold HER accountable for HER actions?
Because as of right now, it seems like Wells Fargos condone and approves of them.

[FM71]

Come on man, don't you guys get it? They've listed it high so that nobody in their right mind will bid on it and they can have their little party pad all to themselves. 99% of people can't even afford it and the other 1% that can know that it's way over inflated so they won't even touch it.

So in the mean time it just sits there and Wells Fargo gets to have their own little private hedonistic party palace .

[wolfy]

Looks like a shack to me. I ain't paying $21M for views of neighbors on both sides and worries that it could be burned down when the Santa Ana's blow. For that kinda money I'd buy a secluded ocean-view estate in Palos Verdes.

[Carlos Sanchez]

It is incredible how those persons can get away with so much fraud.

[Carlos Sanchez]

I have requested a mortgage fraud investigation against Wells fargo Bank and its subsidiary America's Servicing Company for taking away my home in a fraudulent foreclosure process and not giving me the opportunity to mdoify my loan when they knew I was well qualified for Obamas' Home Affordable program signed May 20, 2009.
I have send e.mails to L A Times journalists with all the information about my case with Wells Fargo Bank but since my home is only under $300K no one seams to care.
The Department of Corporations has requested to the Controller of the Currency Mr. John C. Dugan to start an investigation but no one seams to care in getting involve in my case.all I need is one publication so I can help not only my familly to get my house back, but thousand of America Families thar are struggeling the same situation.

[Nelcisco]

Carlos:
Thanx for sharing that,I feel for you, really I do. Unfortunately you're walking around blind without a cane meaning that if you expect Obama to do anything for you,
you're in for big disappointment.

I've never read your comments before, but if you've been reading LA Land for any length of time and read the comments
you'll know that alot of our rants have been about how corrupted wall street and the mortgage banking industry has been and how average folks who work very hard to put their families in a decent home like yourself have been screwed, and it never stops,one would've thought that everything thats been going on in the las yr. bank execs would've laid low and not act so wreckless, a new thing happens.We've tossed words around like "realtards","knifecatchers",etc,etc. But the one word that holds the truest is MORAL HAZARD.

[Barbara Ann Jackson]

Settling only for Wells Fargo’s internal investigations concerning mortgage matters and Cheronda Guyton is equivalent to allowing Bernie Madoff to be his own adjudicator!
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Former Wells Fargo senior vice president, Cheronda Guyton’s personal use of a Miami home, unwittingly exposed an example of deceits associated with foreclosure. (Albeit, failure to pay a mortgage usually means valid loss of one’s home, like the Miami homeowner victims of Ponzi Scheme operator Bernie Madoff.) Evidence shows that a major agenda of lenders like Wells Fargo is to have distressed properties transferred out of borrowers’ names, after which those mortgage companies can flip, sometimes fraudulently, real estates. Also, easily verifiable facts prove that often various nonessential people (sometimes straw purchasers) get slices of a foreclosure ‘pie’ (pie used here to typify ‘case’); and in many situations when there’s this pie available, fraud, criminal extortion, and other illegal, outrageous activities becomes utilized to ensure homeowner becomes ousted. Further, Wells Fargo appears to have no qualms about blighted neighborhoods, especially if with each form 1099-A acquisition it files into the IRS, it receives tax credits and benefits –but there’s more!
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Madoff said he would not have succeeded in committing his multibillion dollar scheme had people paid attention and took actions appropriate to Madoff’s right-in-front-your-face activities. For too long, the same has been true of WF. It’s like a fox guarding the hen house.
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A somber look at certain deceptive mortgage lender practices will reveal that a critical objective of foreclosure is NOT necessarily so that the lender can regain its security interests by reselling properties, but rather for flipping, or for illegally receiving IRS tax advantages, or various frauds, or for deceiving Wall Street, or personal purposes such as Guyton’s (or perhaps Collin Equities), or any other participant connected with distressed property. When red flags flare such as the Guyton embarrassment, WF conducts its own investigation --and cover up.
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Wells Fargo announced firing Guyton, and it stated that no one else (implausible!) was involved with Guyton. However, no explanation was provided as to how or why –since the property had not been put on the market for public sale– Collin Equities, according to Guyton, wound up owning that Miami property after the Elins signed the property over to Wells Fargo. Could it be that –in like manner as Wells Fargo does things down here in Louisiana– Collin Equities was the straw buyer for the Elins property, or did some sort of “simulated sale” occur whereby the property deed became conveyed to Collin? And, considering Guyton’s brass to use that home, and her reference to Collin Equities, could there have been kickbacks / quid pro quo activity between the them or any other firm of which Guyton oversaw property ownership transfers? And by the way, since Ms. Guyton was “responsible for commercial foreclosed properties,” doesn’t that indicate the person who is responsible for Residential foreclosed properties permitted Guyton to have access to the Elin property? (I have no such proof about Guyton, but I do have proof how fraudulent foreclosure conveyances are done. There’s a lot more to be known about how foreclosure conveyances, and how it serves to prevent property from being available (like the unavailable Elins property) for public bid.
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For too long, authorities have been satiated with Wells Fargo’s own internal inquiries –hopefully not because of enormous lobbying monies. Unlike Madoff, Wells Fargo has neither been caught, nor appropriate actions taken, despite in-your-face improprieties; and consumer complaints seem futile. Not until City Mayors (such as Baltimore) began suing WF, has there been such scrutiny serious enough to possibly unmask deliberate lending fraud.
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In some foreclosure cases, through disguise of a mortgage company’s name, a “collection attorney” can be (and some illegally are) the actual foreclosing plaintiff. Thus, intended goals of getting property transferred out of a borrower’s name, and attorney acquisition of property (via straw purchasing) in lieu of, or in addition to billable fees become achieved. This white collar fraud is pervasive! Also, not only can there be money in illegal confiscations of property, there are also lots of billable hours to be racked up from litigating against parties who oppose wrongful taking of their commercial or residential properties. A detailed description about enormous money made from foreclosure litigation is contained in the Dallas, Texas third amended complaint of the lawsuit entitled: Super Future Equities versus Wells Fargo.
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The reality that scores of lenders’ foreclosure cases including some of Wells Fargo’s are now being thrown out of court when lenders (via collection lawyers) file foreclosure or Bankruptcy court proceedings without proof of owning the note is another W F flag, especially since there is irrefutable evidence (see link below) that Wells Fargo intentionally engages in foreclosure frauds. Wherefore, it begs questions such as the following: How many people are unlawfully homeless, unlawfully evicted due to null foreclosure filings, or due to Bankruptcy Court “Lift Stay” motions that have been filed in the name of a lender which does not own the note, or a defunct lender? If courtroom judges simply give collection attorneys carte blanche approval to seize and sell [defaulted] property without judges bothering to determine whether the named mortgage company has lawful right to the property, how probable is it for an unscrupulous lawyer to use any company’s name to seize someone’s home? And how many lawyers (via straw buyers) wind up with those distressed properties until they flip them!? When mortgage companies receive form 1099-A tax advantages from the Internal Revenue; and when mortgage companies continually flip property while at the same time gain negotiable security for the same property, what incentive is there for such lenders to bother about blighted neighborhoods? Lastly, aside from the gust of foreclosures that were dismissed from courts, what untold numbers of people who lack legal knowledge or lack means to pay for legal representation have lost or will loose their homes unlawfully? For reasons such as the foregoing, a sweeping investigation of Wells Fargo is long overdue! Proof about Wells Fargo can be found via this web link:
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http://www.lawgrace.org/2008/08/08/my-august-8-2008-statement-to-the-louisiana-secretary-of-state-office-of-financial-institutions-concerning-wells-fargo-irs-and-mortgage-frauds-sham-foreclosures-and-judicial-collusion-and-national-app/
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Barbara Ann Jackson
Law & Grace, Inc