Alleged real estate fraud exposed

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) - When WAVY.com introduced you to the Brown family last Thursday, we had no idea the can of worms we had opened.

The Browns told WAVY.com the man they thought saved them from foreclosure actually caused them to lose everything after a shady real estate deal crumbled.

The Browns said they responded to a foreclosure rescue advertisement that offered to buy their house, then rent it back to them. What they didn't know, the person at the other end of deal had a long history of real estate fraud and had even served a prison sentence for it.

Long after they signed over the deed to their home, foreclosure notices starting arriving again. Big problems came to light when the Browns said they realized that they actually agreed to sign the deed over, without their mortgage being paid-off.

"We trusted. We were really desperate, so we took his word," Pam Brown said.

After a long legal battle, they had to move out. The Browns lost the house, and they blame a man named John Scott Meredith.

Within hours of our story Thursday, WAVY.com received many messages. All of the messages alleged a similar story, and the man at the center was John Scott Meredith.

WAVY.com was contacted by a man who did not want his identity to be revealed. We will call him "Sam." He says he used to do contract work for Meredith and quit because he knew too much.

"When it finally does go all down hill, I don't want to get caught up in it. I ain't going to jail for anybody," Sam said. "Businesses have all been set up along the way so nothing has the same paper trail. Some houses under this business, some houses under another business."

One of these businesses is the Kery Corporation, the company that bought the Browns house. WAVY.com uncovered documentation that shows the address for Kery Corporation and Meredith's home address match, but Meredith's name does not appear anywhere.

Sam said he knows why.

"He took his last and middle name and flipped it around so it wouldn't be so obvious when he got back into the business, who he was," said Sam.

Sam says a Norfolk federal judged sentenced Meredith to 46 months in prison for his part in fraudulent real estate deals; Sam says when he found out about that, things changed dramatically.

"I started putting things together and I was sitting there thinking, he's still doing it," Sam told us.

Norfolk residents Jessica and Bud Cross are just two of more than a dozen people who contacted WAVY.com after our first story, to say they were also involved in questionable real estate deals with Meredith.

"He's a scam artist. He's a slumlord and a liar and a thief. His claim to us was that if we fixed it up, we could move in and rent to own, so that's what we did," said Cross.

Cross says the Norfolk house they were promised underwent a transformation that cost them thousands. Finally ready to buy, Cross says they secured their mortgage, but then Meredith changed the deal by jacking up the price significantly. Cross said Meredith knew that would stop the sale and a few weeks later they say they knew why, after a phone call.

"I said 'Can I help you?' She said 'Yes, I am the owner of the house' and I said 'You're what?' I said 'What do you mean, you own this house? John Scott owns this house.' She said 'No ma'am, I own the house,'" Cross told WAVY.com.

Cross says she found out Meredith was nothing more than a property manager taking advantage of the situation in more ways than one.

"She found out that John Scott was scamming her," said Cross.

Cross said Meredith told the owner of the house that the Cross's paid much less in rent than they actually did and the difference was going someplace it should not.

"The rest went in John's pocket," said Cross.

We wanted to give Meredith a chance to respond, so we headed to his Virginia Beach home. Meredith didn't open the door, but I did talk to him briefly by phone. I asked him why so many people he has worked closely with in the past are coming forward.

He replied by saying this: "They're lying and they don't want the truth told. They have used every level of government to come after me, with no cause of action," said Meredith.

But according to the Browns, the Crosses, Sam and dozens of others who contacted WAVY.com, Meredith's claims of innocence hold little truth.

"Talking to somebody else who knows a little bit, they think he's going to jail," Sam said.