For years, Cory Briggs, a high-profile San Diego lawyer and a key figure in the resignation of former Mayor Bob Filner, has engaged in real estate transactions that a host of experts say are questionable and possibly fraudulent.
inewsource followed millions of dollars of his land deals through four Southern California counties to be met with slammed doors, a threat to call the police and a strange hand-delivered letter, saying there was no payoff to get rid of Filner, who resigned in 2013 amid a sexual harassment scandal.
inewsource also discovered Briggs had sold his home for about half its worth to a corporation he controls.
These types of transactions are “never done in honest business dealings,” said William Black, a white-collar criminologist and former bank regulator who testified before Congress about the Lehman Brothers collapse.
inewsource asked Black and other experts to review public records of Briggs’ land deals, in particular two $1.5 million deeds of trust made on the same day in 2013. Briggs and his law firm entered into the deeds with four members of the same family. The deeds were secured by houses worth a fraction of that cost, without listing a title company.
“I don’t think he’s going to want the Bar to learn about these things,” Black said.
Continue reading part one of the investigation here
