It's been five months since the fbi raided the homes and businesses of real estate agents david crisp and carl cole .
Former Crisp and Cole real estate agent Scott Reynolds didn't want to talk with us on camera about his former employer David Crisp, but his defense attorney says Reynolds has been talking to the authorities.
We have been in contact with the FBI and in contact with the prosecutors, I think that's an open fact right now," said defense attorney Carl Faller
The FBI will not confirm for 17 News who or what they are investigating
But it might be home purchases like the one Reynolds made at 522 Fern Valley Way.
Reynolds bought the property from David Crisp and Carl Cole in July 2006 for $414 thousand with 100-percent financing from SunTrust mortgage.
The house went into foreclosure in December, and eventually sold for $240 thousand.
That's a loss to the lender of at least $174 thousand.
"David Crisp involved a lot of folks: employees, friends, old high school friends in some land deals that he represented to be totally legitimate," Faller said. "But in retrospect they might have been a little sketchy."
Not so, says former Crisp and Cole broker Ty Stewart.
Crisp is now living with Stewart at a Southern Oaks home.
"I have worked for David and Carl from the very beginning. And I wasn't taken advantage of," Stewart said. "But I can only speak for myself."
"It's not his fault that properties have lost values. That's happened across the board; there are over a thousand foreclosures in Kern County right now, and David didn't have to do with hardly any of those," Stewart added.
"There are a lot of situations with a number of houses, where at face value, they look like they haven't been done appropriately," Faller said. "But as with anything else that is in the investigatory stage, you really have to wait until all the facts come out."
Reynold's former properties are being sold by Debbie Craig Banducci of REMAX Magic.
In fact, Reynolds is now working for Banducci as a real estate agent.
Banducci initially agreed to an on-camera interview Friday, but on Monday declined to comment on the matter.
17 News uncovered two other properties owned by Reynolds, that went back to the bank in foreclosure under similar circumstances.
If you think this doesn't affect other Kern County homeowners, mortgage broker Beth Cheatwood says think again.
"The collateral damage we're seeing isn't just confined through the real estate industry, I think it's having a ripple effect through the economy and society," Cheatwood said.
