Through those predatory deals, Banken sold homes to Muslim buyers at high markups and on worse terms than offered on traditional home sales, the state\u2019s lawyers argued, luring customers into risky transactions through the promise of the American dream of owning a home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cChad Banken exploited people’s willingness to sacrifice for this dream,\u201d Assistant Attorney General Karthik Raman said during his opening argument. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The seven-person jury deliberated for about eight hours over two days before finding Banken and several of his companies civilly liable for violating the Minnesota Human Rights Act. The jury also determined that Banken violated the state Consumer Financial Protection Act on two counts, along with the Prevention of Consumer Fraud Act and the Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act. The latter four verdicts are considered advisory, meaning a judge will make the final determination on those counts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The court will also determine whether to order restitution be paid to victims or assess other penalties, which could include up to $25,000 in fines per violation, along with surrendering profits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The lawsuit, filed in Hennepin County District Court, followed a 2022 investigation by ProPublica and the Sahan Journal that found a rising market in Minnesota for contract-for-deed home sales<\/a>, in which homebuyers pay the sellers directly in installments. Many buyers in Minnesota\u2019s expansive Somali community say that paying interest violates their Islamic religious beliefs. They often turned to investors like Banken, who buy the houses and then resell them to people purchasing through a contract-for-deed program, as a way to purchase \u201cinterest-free\u201d homes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In some cases, however, Banken hid the amount of interest, or he front-loaded it into abnormally high down payments, according to lawyers in Ellison\u2019s office. Banken used inflated home prices, confusing paperwork and six-figure balloon payments due at the end of short contracts to push buyers into default and to ultimately retain ownership of the property, the attorney general\u2019s lawsuit said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some customers sacrificed far more than they understood when they signed the paperwork. They lost their life\u2019s savings and their homes, unknowingly violating their religious principles in the process. One testified that he ended up homeless and living in his truck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI’m not saying Mr. Banken wanted these transactions to fail \u2014 I\u2019m not saying that \u2014 but he sure was indifferent,\u201d Assistant Attorney General Mark Iris told jurors during closing arguments last Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Banken sold 160 homes using contracts for deed, targeting Muslims and buyers with poor credit with an offer of \u201ccreative financing.\u201d Ellison called Banken\u2019s contract-for-deed scheme \u201cone of the worst that I\u2019ve seen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Throughout the trial, Banken\u2019s lawyer, Jack Pierce, described Banken as an honest businessman who only offered alternative financing to those who couldn\u2019t qualify for or objected to traditional avenues. He said Banken purchased the houses his customers picked out, flipped them the same day and charged a markup for profit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFor some people it didn’t work out,\u201d Pierce told jurors. \u201cAnd that’s too bad. It\u2019s unfortunate. That\u2019s life. Sometimes things don’t work out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pierce said Banken was not to blame for the failures. He said his customers\u2019 realtors were responsible for referring clients to his program, drawing up the paperwork and explaining the terms, and he only came in at the end of the process. Pierce said the prospective buyers approached Banken \u2014 not the other way around \u2014 and Banken only offered a menu of options. It was up to the customers to decide which they wanted, Pierce said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIs that wrong?\u201d Pierce asked the jury. \u201cAre we going to punish somebody for providing the opportunity for someone else to buy a house in the option they wanted?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lawyers for the state countered that Banken did not give buyers an informed choice, and the customers, some of whom were not native English speakers, didn\u2019t understand what they were agreeing to when they signed the contracts. In some cases the clients were quoted a price and then were surprised at the end of the process with much higher costs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Abdinoor Igal, 40, was among the customers who lost money through Banken\u2019s program. A long-haul trucker who operated his own small business, Igal testified through a translator that a real estate agent told him he could purchase a no-interest home through Banken\u2019s sharia-compliant program. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Igal, whose story was featured in the ProPublica-Sahan Journal reporting<\/a>, said he put down $20,000 in 2022 to secure a house in suburban Lakeville, which he was originally told would cost about $638,000. When he began to see documents showing a cost of $727,000, he said he had second thoughts, but he was told he would lose his down payment if he backed out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Later, he found out a large portion of his monthly payments was going toward interest. When he realized the deal he\u2019d entered into was different from what he\u2019d thought it was, Igal asked for an emergency meeting with Banken, saying he needed to sell the house immediately and back out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201dPut on the market as for sell,\u201d Igal wrote in an email provided to the jury. \u201cI don\u2019t wanna be your slave.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unable to get out of the deal, Igal eventually walked away from the house after making $170,000 in payments, according to the lawsuit. The financial toll was so devastating, he said, that he had to send his kids back to live in Africa while he rebuilt his savings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI lived in my truck for one year as a homeless person,\u201d Igal told jurors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Igal said after the verdict that he was \u201cvery happy\u201d with the outcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMe and my kids \u2014 we got justice at least,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The post Jury Finds Home Financing Scheme That Targeted Muslims in Minnesota Violated State Law<\/a> appeared first on ProPublica<\/a>.<\/p>\r\nRead More<\/h3>\n\n\n
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www.propublica.org Source link <\/a>\r\nA Minnesota seller, Chadwick Banken, was found liable for exploiting East African Muslims through deceptive real estate deals marketed as “sharia compliant.” Following a two-week trial, a jury concluded that Banken deceived home buyers using complicated “contract for deed” transactions, leaving them financially devastated. The Attorney General’s office highlighted that Banken sold homes at inflated prices and unfavorable terms, leading many customers into distress. Victims like Abdinoor Igal testified about their financial losses, including losing homes and savings. The jury ruled Banken violated multiple state laws, with restitution and penalties to be determined by a judge.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[ad_1] A Minnesota home seller and financier has been found liable for violating state laws in a scheme that targeted East African Muslims with deceptive real estate deals marketed as \u201csharia compliant.\u201d After a two-week trial in downtown Minneapolis, a jury sided with Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison\u2019s office Monday afternoon in a civil case alleging that Chadwick Banken knowingly…","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":2898,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/112"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}