Victim loses home in real estate fraud scheme in Salinas
SALINAS, Calif. (KION) Rosa Garcia wishes she could turn back time and regrets hiring someone to help file a loan modification on her Salinas home. It's been several years, still, there isn't a day that goes by where she doesn't agonize over her decision to trust Amy Agtarap.
She's now been sentenced to prison for 3 years and 4 months. Agtarap was found guilty of 12 felonies, and counts of grand theft and forgery.
Agtarap was running an unlicensed mortgage modification business. Additionally, investigators found she had lied and claimed to have a disability. The 57-year-old collected a check through Social Security Administration between 2008, when she filed, to 2017. Investigators found she had also hidden $800,000 in income. The money was hidden in bank accounts under her daughter's name.
Still, Garcia doesn't believe that jail time helps anyone. Garcia wishes Agtarap was forced to work and pay people back for what she caused them to lose. At the time Garcia's home was valued at $450,000. Currently, Garcia is once again facing eviction. She lives with her dying mother in Salinas and over the summer Cal Property Management gave them notice that they needed to vacate the house by the 11th of November.
KION is told by Cal Property Management that the owner of the home wishes he could do something to help. However, "his story is just as sad.”
The property along Sycamore in Salinas has been leased by her mother for the past 17 years. Now that her mother is bed-bound and suffers from Alzheimer’s, Rosa is looking for an extension on the lease or another affordable home to rent through Section 8.
