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    They once called him a savior who helped people in need. Today, Edwin Parada is accused of taking money from Latinos unfamiliar with real estate laws.

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He's No Angel

Continued from page 3

Published on June 17, 2008 at 12:47pm

"If you were to sign up for courses that are required to get your license, there is very little in there to discuss ethics or your fiduciary duty as a mortgage broker or agent," says Alameda County Deputy District Attorney David Lim, who prosecutes real estate fraud. "And because brokers are commission-driven, it eliminates a lot of checks that regulate what they do."

Primera Iglesia Bautista is the kind of unassuming Mission neighborhood church you can walk by dozens of times without noticing. A simple billboard near the door announces the Wednesday night Bible study, the Friday night teen ministry, and Saturday's family worship. But it is on Sundays that the Baptist church comes alive.

On a stage adorned with burgundy curtains and large vases filled with flowers, a band leads the worshippers in a song about Jesus Christ, the singer walking back and forth like a rock star. Women in their best heels and dresses cast their eyes toward heaven while simultaneously bouncing babies on their laps. Presiding over the celebration is Pastor Tony Lopez, a charismatic former Univision reporter who watches the undulating congregants, not unlike a king overseeing his subjects. His fingers are bejeweled with rings and his hair is perfectly combed.

It was Lopez who first introduced Edwin Parada to the congregation, after meeting the agent on the Spanish-language Christian radio show Parada had on 1010 AM. The men were both from El Salvador, and struck up an acquaintance. Later, when the church was gathering school supplies to send to El Salvador, Parada wrote three checks to help with the effort, Lopez recalls. "He did a lot of good for the church," said Lopez, who became a regular guest on Parada's radio show. "People would call me from their cars during the program to say that they had pulled over and were praying with me because they had been so moved by the sermon. And Edwin was the one who made it happen."

The El Salvadoran church is where Julia Lopez (no relation to Tony Lopez) first met Parada, whom the pastor presented to his congregation as a paragon of Latino success. Parada, then a mere 25 years old, won the crowd over with an easy smile and a few laughs, and then proceeded to tell them about his business.

"He told everyone that he wanted to help us make money," recalls Julia Lopez, a 52-year-old congregant who works as a housekeeping manager at the St. Francis Hotel. "He said, 'Just because you're Christian doesn't mean you have to be poor.'"

A week later, Lopez and her then-boyfriend paid Parada a visit in his Mission office, where the agent laid out a tempting investment opportunity: The couple would take $190,000 from the equity on their home and give it to Parada to invest in other properties, according to Lopez. In return, Parada would give Lopez $1,700 each month, $500 more than her mortgage payment.

Although Parada did make payments to the couple for a time, the checks soon started bouncing, Lopez alleges. And when she asked him for the money back, as was agreed in the promissory note, Parada said that business was slow and that he didn't have it.

Today Lopez wonders how she could have known that what she considered a sound business opportunity would turn out this way.

"It's true that he didn't force me to give him money at knifepoint," Lopez said. "I was ambitious, but that's what I thought you had to do in the U.S. to make money. I thought you had to take risks."

Although Parada is just a few years over the legal drinking age, he managed to gain a reputation in the local Latino community as an ambitious businessman. He was the owner of Red Cafe in the Mission and Gunter's restaurant in South San Francisco, until transferring the titles of both businesses to his sister last October. The Marceloses and several other alleged victims believe the transfer was done after the first lawsuit against Parada was filed in August 2007, which made him think his assets could be seized. But Hayden, Parada's bankruptcy attorney, said his client gave his sister, Sandra Edwan, the restaurants as a way to repay her for money he owed her.

Another property Parada owned for two years is a home in the Excelsior, before it was foreclosed on in April of this year, according to property history documents. In that time, Parada borrowed nearly $700,000 against the property — which is worth approximately $400,000 — by taking out deeds of trust in other people's names, lenders who were meant to assume responsibility for the debt. Typically, a bank or credit union becomes a lender when people borrow against their property, but because these institutions also have more stringent guidelines, it's easier to make another person a lender, which Parada did with at least seven people, according to documents.

One of the "lenders" Parada approached in November 2007 was Martin Arteaga, whose wife Gloria once worked at Red Cafe. But Parada didn't mention anything about a deed of trust or that Arteaga's name would be listed as one of lenders, simply that he had an emergency and needed money, Gloria Arteaga recalls.

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