The Region - News from April 24, 1986

Federal indictments were returned against three men and a woman in the Long Beach area who are accused of having bought houses and collected rents on them while making little or no down payment--and making almost no mortgage payments. Mark Christopher Meng, Marcel Fernando Jordan, Carol Ann Hays and Charles H. Meng Jr. were charged with mail fraud, skimming equity and making false declarations in a bankruptcy action. Federal prosecutors said the four and their firm, Suma Properties Limited, acquired control of 343 houses valued at $41 million, and collected $770,000 in rentals while making virtually no payments on the properties and staving off foreclosure by transferring paper ownership to a third party--who declared bankruptcy.