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WJFA
Minneapolis -- Ida Mae James, 35, of Shakopee, MN, a real estate broker, mortgage broker, and property manager, is accused of stealing the identities and $3 million from her clients. James faces 15 counts of identity theft. Each count carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison or a $100,000 fine for each count. 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." Freeman added that many of James’ victims lived in North Minneapolis, Minnesota, where she met them at the church her father-in-law is the bishop. She befriended the victims, Freeman explained, and got their identities, and then purchased properties that they didn’t know about. The Bishop would only comment that he knew nothing and that many people at this church are upset. In one case, cited in the criminal charges, James allegedly purchased a piece of investment property for her client, promising to pay the rents and make the mortgage payments. The rents were collected by James, but the payments were never made. Some of the homes James purchased under her clients' names are now boarded up. The victims declined to talk about the pending case. The criminal charge accuses James of forging client names and in other cases put accounts in James' name. According to Freeman, "she promised to buy a piece of investment property for someone, telling them "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." Freeman says James used the names Ida Me Bywaters and Ida Mae Johnson, in some cases she spelled Ida ‘Aida’, in her alleged crime. 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 into custody. She also still has her real estate license and won't lose it unless she is convicted.
Ida Mae James is serving eight years in prison.
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