MURRIETA -- A man facing criminal charges in connection with 120 local foreclosures asked a court Thursday to wipe out a portion of $4.2 million that he owes to mortgage lenders and credit card companies, according to court documents filed Thursday.
Dow Duncan's Chapter 7 filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for Riverside listed mortgages on his home in Murrieta and on four other houses, a $1.8 million estate in the hills west of the city and for houses in Palm Springs, Long Beach and Oregon. It also listed some $80,000 in credit card debt.
Duncan is one of two people charged with lying on mortgage applications on two Murrieta-area homes in mid-2007.
Duncan's son James Duncan and Hendrix Montecastro, son-in-law of the other criminal defendant, are facing civil lawsuits by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and former clients. The lawsuits allege that James Duncan and Hendrix Montecastro duped them into buying several houses each in and around Murrieta in 2005 and 2006. Nearly all of those houses fell into foreclosure in 2006 and 2007.
Rich Ackerman, the Temecula attorney who is representing several dozen of those clients, said he doubts the court will agree to wipe out Dow Duncan's debt. Courts generally do not discharge debt proven to have arisen from illegal activity or from tax liability.
Dow Duncan isn't named as a defendant in those lawsuits, but local real estate records show a web of transactions tying him to James Duncan, Montecastro and other sales agents.
Contact staff writer Chris Bagley at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 5444, or cbagley@californian.com.
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