Why Hasn't Roman Libonao Been Indicted?

Why Hasn't Roman Libonao Been Indicted?

 

A Dual Failure of Law Enforcement, and Victims who Fail to Come Forward

 

 

 

In analyzing the many shady and crooked dealings of Roman Libonao, one has to wonder: why hasn't he ended up in prison for fraud?

 

 

Personally, he has 16 lawsuits filed against him. Sixteen. And these are the ones we know of. Most of us will go through life without one. And most of these are breach of contract filings. For the average non-lawyer, that is fraud. He promises to pay an unsecured debt and he simply walks away from his obligation, or at the very least does not pay as agreed. And these filings are not all with the same person. We must say, our little antogonist does get around. He is fine with ripping off business associates as he is with the father of his ex-wife -- while they were still married. It's just the way Libonoa makes a living. You and I get up early and work for a living the old fashioned way. Not Libonao. Although he has his commercial real estate brokerage license, he does not derive a living that way. It is hard to find him in any real estate social media or professional RE listing website. It appears to be a front for his "real" job of scamming people.

 

 

On top of that, his RE holding company recently came out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. He had 13 of his properties in bankdruptcy for two and a half years. According to his filing, there was $3.3 million in assets, and $6.1 million in liabilities. Let's think about this one for a minute. Creditors lost nearly $3 million from Libonao. And this is not taking into account legal fees for each of these financial institutions or small investors. Libonao had this case in bankruptcy from January of 2017 to August of 2019 -- 32 months. Now, how many people lost some or all of their money with Libonao? We may never know, since only the top 20 people/institutions were identified in the Chaper 11 filing.

 

 

We know from our research that Libonao had some of these properties since the early 2000's, if not sooner. Some had traditional mortgages. Many wiyh private individuals as lenders. What we do know is that from 2010 to the present time, values of real estate in California have gone way up. And that is an understatement. During this 10 year period, this real estate growth has been some of the highest in California history. If you own a single family residence, the value of your home is most likely the highest it has ever been.

 

 

Libonao's 13 properties are mostly singel family residences. And most of them are in Southern CA, an area known for very high real estate growth. So, you may ask, why did Libonao file his RE holding company for bankruptcy? After all, according to Libonao's website, he calls himself "a successful real estate professional with considerable experience across several sectors." We think these "sectors" are fraud, greed and hiding assets.

 

 

Libonao has horrible personal credit. Sixteen lawsuits alone proves this, including several with credit card companies. And this is only the lawsuits our research has turned up. We can only imagine how many slow pays and Collectiona accounts he has. One or 2 judgments would take him out of the running for traditional bank mortgage financing. So, where has he recently obtained so much in debt relative to the asset value of his bankruptcy filing?

 

 

One way we do know is by selling trust deeds on his properties, and calls them "secured" Notes. He most likely offers high interest rates on these trust deeds to individuals, without telling them that they are in a thrid or maybe even a fourth position. In other words, they are unsecured. And he certainly does not disclose his horrific personal credit history.

 

 

So, the big question is, why hasn't Libonao been indicted?

 

 

We know that at least some of his creditors have been scammed by this con artist. Why haven't they come forward? Or does the answer lie with law enforcement: are they too busy or just plain incompetent in recognizing fraud? We know that Libonao is crafty when it comes to hiding his cash. And we know he likes an extravogent lifestyle. Even now, he drives around a late model pickup truck worth over $50K, while others have lost tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars with him.

 

 

It's easy folks. Go to your local police station and file a police report. A detective will get involved, usually within a week.

 

 

And maybe we will get lucky, and see him on an episode of American Greed.