Cops Shakedown Foreclosure Victims

Side businesses are common in America. Industrious workers with full-time jobs spend evenings and weekends working on building their own businesses striving for a little extra income or an opportunity to become a full-time entrepreneur. Some businesses, however, are not quite as savory as others.

Two Phoenix area police officers created Better Choice LLC, a real estate company with a predatory business plan. The two officers would approach homeowners on the verge of foreclosure and offer a sale-leaseback opportunity to get out of debt.

The officers would buy the home at a steep discount from the market price with a contract to rent the home to the previous owner as a tenant with the option to buy the home back at a higher price down the road.

This does not seem all that bad, until you look into the contract. A late payment or missed payment would lead to immediate eviction and end all opportunities to buy the house back at the pre-determined rate. After evicting the tenant, the cops cleaned up the houses and sold them for a big profit.

The two were charged in a civil suit by the Arizona Attorney General and suspended pending investigation from their policing duties.

Read more at UPI.