KANNAPOLIS — A Kannapolis real estate broker has given up his license and his broker wife is on probation after the North Carolina Real Estate Commission said they tried to cheat banks out of money they owed on properties.
John Mac Chubirko, president of Genesis Realty Co. on Lane Street, accepted a permanent revocation of his license on April 4. In exchange, the commission dismissed allegations that he violated provisions of real estate license law and commission rules, according to its May bulletin.
Gwen Lee Chubirko, co-owner of Genesis Realty, had her license suspended for two years, but that ruling was stayed and she was put on probation for five years, according to a consent order filed by the commission.
Janet Thoren, director of regulatory affairs for the Real Estate Commission, said the charges came after the oversight agency learned the Chubirkos had been involved in a scam where they tried to wipe out their own real estate debt.
In 2010, the couple bought a kit that taught them to how to create, sign and record documents at the local register of deeds office that were supposed to eliminate liens on the property they owned, Thoren said. When banks that held notes on the properties tried to foreclose or enforce the liens, they ran into problems with the fraudulent documents, she said.
Thoren said John Chubirko did most of the work on those documents.
“We’ve seen it from time to time in different formats around the state, but this happened to be two brokers that got caught up in it and thought they could reduce their own debt,” Thoren said. “It wound up not working at all, of course.”
A woman who answered the telephone at Genesis Realty said Gwen Chubirko had no comment on the disciplinary action. She said John Chubirko was not in the office.
Information on the number of properties and amount of money involved was not immediately available.