A Walnut woman who helped her brother run a real estate fraud estimated at $6 million was sentenced Monday, Oct. 16, to three years and 10 months in federal prison.
Bianca Gonzalez, 41, pleaded guilty last year to one federal count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. Her brother, Adolfo Schoneke, 46, of Torrance, also admitted his part in the scheme and was sentenced in October 2022 to nine years in prison.
Prosecutors said Schoneke and Gonzalez, working with co-conspirators, ran real estate and escrow companies based in Cerritos, La Palma and Long Beach. The businesses operated under several names, including MCR and West Coast.
The pair admitted that they identified properties and listed them for sale even though many were not on the market and they had no authority to list them. Prosecutors said the homes were marketed as short sales, which presented buyers with a chance to purchase at below-market prices.
To post the listings on real estate websites such as the Multiple Listing Service, Schoneke and Gonzalez used other people's broker's licenses. According to court papers, some of the homes were also promoted through open houses, which co-conspirators were able to hold after tricking homeowners into allowing the use of their properties.
The co-conspirators accepted multiple offers on each of the properties that were not actually for sale. As a result, every victim believed theirs was the only offer that had been accepted.
Buyers were then kept waiting, in some cases for years. The co-conspirators told them that closings were delayed because lenders were still working through approval of the short sales.
Prosecutors said Schoneke and Gonzalez instructed office workers to open bank accounts in the workers' own names. Those accounts received down payments and other money from victims, who were persuaded to wire the full "purchase price" after being given forged sale documents.
Investigators estimate that several hundred victims together lost more than $6 million.
