(Dakota County, Minn, 1/21/2018) Michael Volpe investigates mortgage fraud in the Grazzini-Rucki case: David Rucki Commits Apparent Mortgage Fraud
By Michael Volpe
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The initial document which started this investigation was sent by Michael Brodkorb, who runs a blog dedicated to bad mouthing Sandra Grazzini-Rucki and anyone who supports her, to an Angie Young.
He sent it to Young because the initial document is signed A. Young and Angie Young is neighbors with Dede Evavold, a supporter of Grazzini-Rucki.
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As his divorce was heating up, David Rucki engaged in blatant and brazen mortgage fraud.
According to the tract search, on June 3, 2011, the mortgage on Rucki’s Lakeville home was satisfied, meaning it was paid off, but inexplicably, his house was then foreclosed on- only to have him or his agents buy it back at auction every time- and sold at auction four times.
Rucki continues to own the property with numerous dubious and potentially fraudulent entries.
In the first case, Deutsche Bank Trust is listed as a brand-new mortgagor, the one providing the loan, on June 30, 2012.
On October 11, 2012, as part of a foreclosure, Deutsche Bank Trust was removed as the mortgagor in pen on the property and Wallingford Capital was written in instead.
Lawton King at Deutsche Bank said the loan was being serviced by Ocwen which provided this statement: “This loan is not in our system. We also checked different variation.”
Deutsche Bank, and their public affairs officer Lawton King, did not provide any further details on what happened to the loan.
According to the same document, Wallingford Capital then assumed this loan of $140,365 at 4.75%, an unusually low rate for a property bought at foreclosure, but David Rucki continued to remain in the property. Wallingford Capital did not return a message for comment.
The law firm Shapiro and Zielke was listed as handling the sale; their managing partner, Lawrence Zielke, issued this statement.
“This was a public sale. We do not control which party bids at sale. I suggest you consult with your own real estate lawyer so counsel can walk your through this process. I have nothing further to say on this matter.”
But Sandra Grazzini-Rucki said she spoke with a realtor who tried to attend one of the four so-called foreclosure sales; the realtor said they were not allowed in and the sale was done privately, with no prior public announcement, and not publicly as is supposed to be done.
Zielke had no further comment.
Realty Listing Photos Ireland Place
In another case, Rucki’s attorney, Lisa Elliott, places an attorney’s lien on Rucki’s property in the amount of $60,000 on July 12, 2012.
Elliott, who has represented Rucki in his divorce starting around this time, did not respond to an email for comment.
She then transferred that lien to NJD Properties which then transferred the lien to Danmark Properties.
Brian Hoelscher represented NJD in the transaction: “I had a look at title and have attached the tract history. Mr. Rucki’s attorney had a lien on the property from the divorce, the first mortgage went into foreclosure so my client bought the attorney lien to be in line to redeem as a junior creditor in the event that Mr. Rucki did not redeem as owner. That is a typical transaction for my client. I advised my client to get a confirmation from the debtor as to the validity of the attorney lien (which is the document to which you were referring that I drafted) since the lien is involuntary and without the confirmation could be contested and found ultimately worthless.
“My client bought the lien and soon thereafter sold the position to Danmark Properties LLC. Mr. Rucki redeemed as the owner and Danmark Properties LLC had a foreclosure sale to enforce the attorney lien. Mr. Rucki again redeemed as the owner. It looks like he still owns it subject to existing liens including the 2nd mortgage in favor of Excel Bank recorded as Document No. 2263968 (unless that was paid but never satisfied of record) as well as other possible lien(s) and the mortgage he took out in 2015. It doesn’t look like he avoided any of the liens so I am not sure where you got your information. In any event, to the extent that anything nefarious was occurring, it certainly did not involve my client.”
But according to Sandra Grazzini-Rucki, this explanation makes no sense. First, Elliott had only started to represent David Rucki, it’s not clear how she even racked up $60,000 in fees if it had been less than a month. (It’s noteworthy that he now demands child support from the homeless Sandra Grazzini-Rucki)
Second, she said the divorce judge, Judge David Knutson, ordered that this lien be paid from the trust of her parents.
Knutson ordered 100% of the marital estate to go to David Rucki, ordered that Sandra Grazzini-Ruck pay child support and alimony, along with ordering that David Rucki receive sole custody of the children.
Knutson did not respond to an email for comment.
Finally, David Rucki is a multi-millionaire who should have no trouble paying a $60,000 debt.
Danmark properties then pops up again on the tract search as the purchaser of a loan at a foreclosure auction on December 18, 2013.
But David Rucki continued to live in the property throughout, he then purchased the property at another foreclosure auction on June 10, 2014.
In other words, he didn’t have money to pay for the monthly mortgage payment but somehow had enough money to purchase the entire mortgage.
Attorney Lisa Elliot
Then, Lisa Elliott transferred yet another lien to David Rucki on March 10, 2014. It’s not clear what lien this is as she had supposedly sold her lien to NJD Properties.
Danmark Properties did not respond to an email for comment.
Finally, David Rucki then transferred to mortgage to his parent’s trust on April 29, 2015, and that trust currently owns the property which he lives on.
He also owns three other homes.
The initial document which started this investigation was sent by Michael Brodkorb, who runs a blog dedicated to bad mouthing Sandra Grazzini-Rucki and anyone who supports her, to an Angie Young.
He sent it to Young because the initial document is signed A. Young and Angie Young is neighbors with Dede Evavold, a supporter of Grazzini-Rucki.
Young denied making the document and Brodkorb said: “You clearly received this document from Mrs. Evavold, as it contains the file I named and sent to Mrs. Young.
“Mrs. Young confirmed tonight that she did not author this document in 2013, and the authenticity of the underlying document is in doubt.
“This won’t stop you from publishing it again, but I cannot publish this document since the alleged author denies the document is truthful.”
But Young, in an interview with me, didn’t deny the document’s truthfulness but having put it together entirely.
Brodkorb had no comment on how a property could be foreclosed on so many times by a multi-millionaire and the numerous disappearing mortgages.
I also sent these documents to 20/20 and the President of ABC, Channing Dungey, without response, however less than a week after sending these documents Elizabeth Vargas surprised the media world by announcing she was leaving ABC after more than two decades with the network.
It’s not clear if the two events are correlated.
20/20 ignored a mountain of evidence of abuse in favor of painting Sandra Grazzini-Rucki as mentally unstable and not providing any evidence of abuse.
Grazzini-Rucki said a source in ABC said 20/20 made a secret deal with David Rucki about which questions he could be asked and even gave him editing power over the broadcast.
Vargas and the two producers- Sean Dooley and Beth Mullens- of the 20/20 broadcast of this story declined to respond to numerous emails when I raised this allegation.
Dungey also declined to respond to emails to confirm or deny this allegation. Lisa Elliott also did not respond to emails to confirm or deny this allegation.
Check out David Rucki’s mortgage fraud dossier here.
Check out the tract search on Rucki’s property here.
Justice for Sandra Grazzini-Rucki and Children 