Greenleaf, Real Estate Co. to pay more than $330K in restitution

Attorney General Chris Koster has obtained a summary judgment against Springfield-based Greenleaf Cos. LLC and its affiliate The Real Estate Co., along with two of its business operators - Scott Dasal and Eric Gagnepain.

The judgment orders that the defendants pay more than $308,000 in restitution to consumers and about $30,000 to the state, according to a Dec. 16 news release from the attorney general's office.

It also permanently bans the defendants from selling or renting homes to consumers in Missouri.

The settlement comes after the defendants falsely sold homes to consumers. The homes actually were owned by investors the defendants had solicited. The investors took out mortgages on the homes, but Greenleaf led the consumers buying the homes to believe that payments made to Greenleaf were going toward mortgage payments, when they were in fact often being used as business operating expenses.  

As mortgage payments were not actually being made, banks foreclosed on the loans and many consumers lost the money they had paid to the defendants as well as their homes, according to Koster.

Another lawsuit against former Greenleaf Director of Finance William Strong is pending, Koster said.