Mobile home park manager charged for extensive fraud

By: Adam Rollins, Staff Writer
Posted 5/21/21

The former manager of Lakeview Estates mobile home park has been charged with a dozen crimes related to theft, forgery and exploitation.

Shannon M. Sonnenschein, 39, of Warrenton, is suspected …

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Mobile home park manager charged for extensive fraud

Posted

The former manager of Lakeview Estates mobile home park has been charged with a dozen crimes related to theft, forgery and exploitation.

Shannon M. Sonnenschein, 39, of Warrenton, is suspected of bilking Lakeview residents and the park’s owning company out of tens of thousands of dollars, according to charging documents filed in court. Lakeview Estates is a mobile home park just outside Warrenton that caters to residents age 55 and older.

The Warren County Sheriff’s Department began an investigation into Sonnenschein’s activities in September 2019 after residents reported that the park’s owning company hadn’t been receiving payments that residents submitted. Residents believed that Sonnenschein had been taking their payments and keeping the money.

Prosecutors issued charges May 12 for eight counts of stealing $750 or more, three counts of forgery or attempted forgery, and one charge of financial exploitation of an elder. The charges involve at least $20,000 in stolen funds, although residents fear that far more may have been at risk.

Lt. Scott Schoenfeld with the sheriff’s department said the detective leading the case spent more than a year combing through bank records of the suspect and “dozens and dozens” of potential victims, along with conducting individual interviews, to secure charges against Sonnenschein. Over 100 people were identified as potential victims, Schoenfeld said.

“There was a huge scope of fraud, both as far as the amount of victims, as well as the variety of ways that she was defrauding the victims. It wasn’t just one scam that she was running over and over again,” Schoenfeld commented. “At the end of the day, one of the most significant victims was actually her employer, because her employer reimbursed people in the community.”

Allegations

In response to a document request, prosecutors provided sheriff's department reports for seven cases that are the focus of the charges. The charges mostly relate to Sonnenschein acting as an intermediary to help residents buy and sell trailer homes. Lakeview Estates residents own the trailers they live in, but rent the land they sit on from owner Moore Enterprises. 

The charges allege Sonnenschein kept a significant portion of money in these property exchanges that was meant for the trailer sellers or for Moore Enterprises. Sonnenschein allegedly deposited the illicit money using the bank account of her grandmother, who we are identifying only as RM.

In one case, investigators said Sonnenschein told a trailer buyer that a previous resident had died and donated her trailer to a church. She said the church was selling the trailer for $9,800, and that the buyer could write a check to RM, who Sonnenschein claimed was the church treasurer.

Meanwhile, the trailer’s former owner, who is alive and well, told investigators that Sonnenschein gave her only $1,600 cash for her property and no receipt of sale. When shown a title document stating she had sold the trailer for $9,800, the woman told deputies she was not the one who wrote and signed the document.

In another case, investigators said Sonnenschein falsely told a new resident that she needed to pay sales tax on the trailer she just bought. The resident was directed to fill out a $1,600 check to the Department of Revenue, which Sonnenschein allegedly used to pay her own tax on a personal vehicle. 

Investigators allege they also discovered a forged $2,000 check that was filled out in the name of that same victim and deposited in RM’s bank account.

Sonnenschein is also accused of embezzling significant money from her former employer, park owner Moore Enterprises. Anytime a trailer is sold in the park, the company is owed a commission. Several of the investigation documents describe Sonnenschein collecting commission payments, then depositing them in RM’s bank account instead of with Moore Enterprises.

Lakeview Estates residents have also expressed fears that Sonnenschein was keeping their monthly rental payments that were meant for Moore Enterprises. No such allegations have been confirmed in charging documents filed thus far.

Lt. Schoenfeld said many instances of reported fraud were for smaller amounts and had passed their statute of limitation for prosecution. Other reports are still being considered for possible additional charges, he said.

Sonnenschein currently has a warrant out for her arrest. The warrant authorizes her to be released on her own recognizance once she’s been booked at the county jail and given a court date.

Lakeview Estates, theft, Forgery, Exploitation

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