San Jose web site tied to authentic estate fraud could wipe out retiree nest egg

SAN JOSE — Buyers and an aged retiree experience the grim prospect they may eliminate hundreds of thousands of bucks, relying on courtroom rulings and a foreclosures danger over a massive San Jose task tied to a Bay Region true estate fraud situation.

A lawful, economic and house tug-of-war has erupted around the foreseeable future of a San Jose website exactly where fraud-joined developer Sanjeev Acharya had proposed a combined-use residential, retail and restaurant village.

The attributes in query are at 2101 by 2149 Alum Rock Ave. in San Jose. At that locale, Silicon Sage had proposed the growth of 796 residential models, together with shops and eating places.

The east San Jose advancement site is a single of the quite a few properties that were being element of the Bay Location serious estate empire fashioned by failed developer Acharya and Silicon Sage Builders.

The Securities and Trade Fee claims both of those Acharya and Silicon Sage have dedicated an array of fraudulent steps that swindled hundreds of buyers, many from the South Asian neighborhood.

A federal decide has shoved Silicon Sage’s homes into receivership. The court docket-appointed receiver has begun an intricate method of attempting to salvage benefit from the collapsed and bankrupt genuine estate empire by locating buyers for the qualities.

In the case of the east San Jose web site, financial institution Parkview Economic is threatening to foreclose on the property’s mortgage and seize ownership of the Alum Rock Avenue real estate.

Parkview is poised to choose handle of the residence as quickly as the finish of January 2022. A foreclosure would wipe out the resources that buyers had paid Acharya in link with his proposed advancement of the site.

The battle in excess of the residence also threatens a number of million dollars that are even now owed to Charles Johnisee, an aged retiree who experienced sold the house in September 2020 to Acharya in a $9 million offer.

In September 2020, Silicon Sage and Acharya compensated $9 million to get hold of a portion of the web-site for the proposed blended-use undertaking. But as an alternative of a straightforward offer that furnished all $9 million promptly to Johnisee, Archarya confident the aged male to concur to a convoluted transaction.

The stakes are high for Johnisee, the retiree stated in the court documents. Johnisee had owned the parcels for about 45 many years just before agreeing to offer Acharya the home.

“It was his retirement nest egg” and “the bulk of his assets,” according to papers that Johnisee’s lawyers submitted with the bankruptcy court.

Acharya to begin with promised Johnisee that the deal would be all-dollars and easy. Inevitably, having said that, all those assurances evaporated and Acharya as a substitute coaxed Johnisee to go along with a complicated offer that intended Johnisee and the lender would together offer all of the funding for the home purchase.

Silicon Sage and Acharya wound up paying absolutely nothing of the $9 million. Johnisee and his wife been given $2.6 million of the $9 million they were being owed.

The federal court dealing with the SEC circumstance towards Acharya has specified the receiver right up until Jan. 31 to market the residence and open up an escrow arrangement for the sale of the Alum Rock web page. If that doesn’t transpire, then the loan company has the correct to quickly proceed with a foreclosure and seizure.

A foreclosure would indicate Acharya’s investors would receive nothing at all from the proceeds of the Alum Rock internet site sale.

Plus, Johnisee and his spouse are involved that impending courtroom rulings could induce them to shed their last opportunity to get back any of the remaining $6.4 million they are still owed from the original $9 million offer.