Seven months after buying a home on the shore of Lake Minnetonka for the bargain price of $142,000, Cristian Fisk flipped the property to someone else for $359,000.
How did Fisk manage to more than double his money on the deal? His mother was the real estate agent on both transactions, and she took "illegal" steps to drive down the price of the property, according to a lawsuit filed last month against broker Christine Valerius by the original owner of the house.
In his lawsuit, Robert C. Vandell said that Valerius — who works as a broker at Coldwell Banker Burnet's office in Wayzata — failed to inform him in writing that Fisk is her son, a violation of state law. The Minnesota Department of Commerce is investigating Vandell's complaint, according to Tom Rehman, a Coldwell Banker Burnet vice president.
"They requested our files, which we sent," said Rehman, who said he couldn't answer questions about the deal or Valerius.
In the lawsuit, Vandell accused Valerius of fraud and breach of duty. Valerius, who obtained her real estate license in 2006, did not return calls seeking comment and has yet to file an answer to the lawsuit.
Her lawyer, John Jesperson, said the lawsuit "severely misrepresents some of the factual background."
Fisk declined to answer questions about the property. "I'm good," Fisk said. "Nobody really reads the newspaper."
State regulators have revoked the licenses and taken other actions against sales agents who have failed to disclose their relationships to a buyer in order to camouflage their interest in a deal, a practice known as using a "straw man" buyer. Commerce officials did not respond to questions regarding the investigation.