Lawsuit: Daniloo robbed parents

Ex-mortgage broker accused of stealing dad's ID for $116K

BY GARTH STAPLEY
BEE STAFF WRITER

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Convicted con man Tony Daniloo hung his parents out to dry before he was arrested for running a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme, according to a lawsuit.

The former Modesto mortgage broker stole his father's identity to obtain a $116,000 refinance payment and then swiped the money, leaving his parents holding the bag, court documents state.

David and Susie Daniloo last week filed for bankruptcy protection, listing debts on their home as their largest liability. Their son had used his parents' home as collateral for the illegal loan, the lawsuit claims.

1985: Davoud (an Assyrian variation of David) Daniloo buys a home on Thor Street in Turlock.
1993: David and Susie Daniloo obtain a $63,750 loan secured by the property.
1997: The Daniloos file Chapter 13 bankruptcy, intending to repay creditors.
1998-2002: Their son, Tony, siphons money from elderly Bay Area clients.
DECEMBER 2003: Tony Daniloo forges the name of an elderly Alzheimer's patient to buy homes occupied by his parents and the parents of his wife, Nansi, according to a lawsuit. Tony Daniloo creates DreamLife Financial, a Modesto lending firm that specializes in loans to people with poor credit. The company opens seven branch offices.
FEBRUARY 2004: Someone using David Daniloo's identity applies to refinance his Turlock home. In a subsequent lawsuit, the lender accuses Tony Daniloo of posing as David Daniloo and stealing $116,000 intended to pay off a previous lender. Tony Daniloo wires the first of three payments totaling $17,500 to the escrow officer who notarized the signatures of the Alzheimer's patient and his father.
FALL 2004: DreamLife draws public praise for pledging $4.5 million to Turlock's Emanuel Medical Center and $1 million to California State University, Stanislaus.
DECEMBER 2004: The Bee documents Tony Daniloo's bankruptcies, late tax payments, résumé forgeries and lawsuits. DreamLife goes out of business. He and his wife are arrested.
JANUARY 2005: David Daniloo's lender threatens to sell the home at a foreclosure auction because payments are behind.
NOVEMBER 2006: The lender sues David Daniloo, Tony Daniloo and a title company hired to manage the home refinancing. David Daniloo claims no knowledge of the deal, the lender says.
DECEMBER 2006: Tony Daniloo admits to running a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme, pleads guilty to 122 felony counts and is scheduled to be sentenced in March to more than 10 years in federal prison.
FEB. 1: David and Susie Daniloo file for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 7, which would allow them to erase debts. Money owed toward their home tops the couple's list of liabilities.

Authorities have suggested Daniloo pulled a similar swindle on his wife's parents.

Tony Daniloo, 32, in December pleaded guilty to 122 felony counts of fraud and money laundering. He is scheduled next month to be sentenced to more than 10 years in federal prison.

He admitted to preying on low-income and minority clients with poor credit and forging documents to qualify them for loans they otherwise would not have received.

A Bee review in December 2005 suggested that Daniloo in late 2003 had stolen the identity of an Alzheimer's patient to purchase the Turlock homes occupied by his parents and his wife's parents.

He opened DreamLife Financial about the same time and began buying luxury cars, expensive jewelry and pledging multimillion-dollar gifts to Emanuel Medical Center and California State University, Stanislaus.

The latest lawsuit was filed in Stanislaus County Superior Court by Argent Mortgage Co., which agreed to refinance his parents' Turlock home in February 2004. The company thought David Daniloo had applied for the refinancing and hired Fidelity National Title Co. to manage the deal, according to court documents.

Paying off the initial lender was among Fidelity's duties, Argent's lawsuit states. Instead, Tony Daniloo provided alternate payout instructions to Fidelity and intercepted the payment, according to court documents.

"(David Daniloo) contended that he was not aware of the Argent loan, that his identity was stolen to obtain the loan and that he never signed any of the loan documents," the Argent lawsuit reads.

Tony Daniloo admitted in December to using similar methods to bilk more than $4.5million from his clients at DreamLife in and around Modesto. Whether transactions involving his parents' home figured into his guilty plea could not be determined.

But two days after Argent issued the refinance money for his parents' home, Tony Daniloo illegally wired $109,125 — the payment amount, less $6,828 — to his bank account, he admitted in December.

David Daniloo, 64, reached Wednesday at his home by telephone, refused to comment.

His bankruptcy attorney, Dan Nelson, said David and Susie Daniloo are trying to cancel the deed of trust that resulted in the refinancing. It isn't clear whether they will declare the documents bogus in state court or U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Nelson said.

Nelson's staff watched David and Susie Daniloo sign their names, he said, on bankruptcy documents. The Bee used those documents to compare the signatures on the refinance papers that Argent claims were forged. The signatures don't appear to match.

Signatures compared

People are barred from seeking bankruptcy protection more than once in an eight-year period. The older Daniloos last went bankrupt in 1997, according to federal court documents.

The current bankruptcy should protect their home from being seized by creditors, Nelson said. Argent had threatened foreclosure, according to documents in the Stanislaus County recorder's office.

Another lawsuit claims that Tony Daniloo befriended the Alzheimer's patient before she moved to Colorado, then stripped her South San Francisco home of $447,200 before it was lost to foreclosure.

Tony Daniloo paid Fidelity escrow officer Elba Speth $17,500 to notarize related documents, authorities say. She also vouched for David Daniloo's apparently forged signatures, the Argent lawsuit states.

A person answering at Speth's Hayward home abruptly ended a call placed by The Bee.

Listed as defendants in the Argent lawsuit are Fidelity, Tony Daniloo and his father. Argent says Fidelity refused to reimburse the refinance money, and Argent claims fraud, breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty and negligent misrepresentation.

Tony Daniloo had used the identity of his wife's parents in March 2002 to buy an Oakland home and to intercept a loan secured by the property, a prosecutor's investigator wrote in other court documents. Fidelity also handled that deal; its attorney could not be reached Tuesday.

Alameda County district attorney's office Inspector A. Salerno tracked down Shavool Masihi, Daniloo's father-in-law, in Turlock in December 2004, Salerno wrote.

"Mr. Masihi told me he didn't own the house, didn't buy the house, never been to the house, never applied for a loan for an Oakland house and never signed papers to buy a house in Oakland," Salerno wrote.

People who did business with Tony Daniloo or DreamLife Financial can contact Bee staff writer Garth Stapley at 578-2390 or gstapley@modbee.com.