A Beverly Hills lady who proclaimed herself the “queen of actual property” has been charged with submitting dozens of fraudulent multimillion greenback liens towards owners all through Los Angeles County.
Rita Cedeno Ortiz, 58, was arrested Feb. 26 and hit with 25 counts of aggravated felony forgery, based on reserving and charging data obtained by Realtor.com.
The weird case highlights the dangers owners face from phony mechanic’s liens, that are authorized claims towards a property that may be filed by somebody who did development or enchancment work on the property and was not paid.
In California, mechanic’s liens will be filed towards a house by way of a easy type handed in on the county recorder’s workplace. The house usually can’t be offered or refinanced with liens connected, and resolving fraudulent claims will be time-consuming and costly.
Prosecutors say that Ortiz abused the method by submitting a flurry of fraudulent liens claiming she was owed tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} by owners she had by no means labored for, and even met.
On social media, Ortiz describes herself as a “actual property coach” and the “queen of actual property,” in addition to claiming the title of “honorary mayor elect” of Panorama Metropolis, a neighborhood in Los Angeles.
Public data present that she is the founder and CEO of Ortiz Consulting LLC, a agency that purports to be headquartered on Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills.
Final month, an exposé from KABC revealed that Ortiz Consulting LLC has filed 35 mechanic’s liens since 2023, totaling greater than $568 million value of claims of unpaid work.
One of many victims, Marjorie Josaphat, says she was just lately blindsided by a number of liens totaling greater than $100 million connected to a house she bought in Benedict Canyon final 12 months.
The liens, filed by Ortiz Consulting LLC, claimed extravagant unpaid charges for work together with “cleansing providers” and “enterprise consulting providers.”
Josaphat, an expert house flipper, had bought the three-bedroom, 1,400-square-foot house to renovate, and solely found the liens when she ready to listing the property on the market.
“I don’t know who Rita Ortiz is,” Josaphat instructed KABC. “This place was deserted. There’s nothing to scrub. If she did a job of $24 million, then she owes me cash as a result of this place was actually a large number.”
Ortiz additionally allegedly filed bogus multimillion liens for “cleansing providers” on two houses subsequent door to Josaphat’s property, bewildering the neighbors who say they’ve by no means contracted with the girl.
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In garbled textual content messages to KABC, Ortiz defended herself, saying: “I’ve Enterprise and initiatives with the homeowners, I did work for them with protects over 10 years, after arduous work the homeowners discriminated me didn’t paid me.”
Ortiz claimed she was the true sufferer within the case, writing: “for all Benedict Canyon Dr. the Neighbors stole my property when I’ve settlement with the financial institution, I cleansing this property for round 10 years working for this property for over 10 years, they neighbors Benedict Canyon Dr. destroyed my property a number of occasions.”
Every week after the twisted saga got here to gentle, Ortiz was evicted from her rental unit on Glendon Avenue in Los Angeles, a property she had additionally filed large liens towards.
Ortiz was lastly arrested final week, and is at the moment being held on the Century Regional Detention Facility in lieu of a $700,000 bond, reserving data present.
Deputy District Lawyer Shiho June Miyagishima is prosecuting the case. The Los Angeles County District Lawyer’s Workplace didn’t return a request for remark.
Court docket data don’t point out an lawyer representing Ortiz. An arraignment listening to had been scheduled for Monday, however data don’t present that Ortiz has entered a plea within the case.
