The last thing Alan Kats ever wrote was a handwritten note.

“Stop these criminals from destroying people’s lives.”

He left it behind before walking into a quiet office in a suburb of Toronto with a shotgun. By the time it was over, three people were dead, including Kats himself.

To understand that note, you have to understand what happened before it.

The Pitch That Sounded Reasonable

Kats and his wife had worked hard. Their house was paid off. The real estate market was strong. A friend gave them what sounded like practical advice: stop swinging a hammer. Be the bank instead. Lend money, collect ten percent, enjoy your retirement.

So they borrowed roughly $1.2 million against that paid-off home and put it into private lending. They knew the rehab business. They were promised first position on the mortgage. It looked safe.

What they didn’t know: they were being steered by a broker whose husband controlled everything from behind a wall of shell companies and fake names. His name was Arash Missaghi, and it appeared on nothing.

The Trick That Made $1.3 Million Disappear

Professional con men hide two things: their assets and their criminal past. Missaghi had decades of practice at both.

Here is the mechanism, and it’s worth understanding clearly: if a mortgage lien isn’t registered, it doesn’t exist. The filing is the security, not the signature on the paper. Kats signed documents that looked official. They were worthless, because Missaghi never filed the lien. Roughly $1.3 million vanished into thin air. No security. No recourse. Nothing.

They called the FBI. They hired lawyers. Kats believed the corporate paperwork protected him. It didn’t. Every LLC and shell company was a puppet on Missaghi’s strings. When Kats started asking hard questions, he was handed off to a new contact with a different name. Soft voice. Reassuring manner. Same man. New alias.

A Ponzi Scheme in a Mortgage Banker’s Suit

The structure Missaghi used was the same one Bernie Madoff used, just with houses instead of stocks. He took new victims’ money to pay off old ones, used borrowed funds to control assets, forced sales, and pocketed the proceeds. He did it over and over for twenty years.

The victims lost their properties, their savings, and their futures. And Missaghi walked away clean every single time. Twenty years. Two dozen schemes. Zero convictions.

How? Because his name was never on a document that tied him to the crimes. He was an invisible puppet master. Regulators couldn’t reach him. Police couldn’t pin it on him. And when victims complained, the answer was always the same: sorry, you should get a lawyer.

Some got a lawyer. One man got a gun.

What the Note Tells Us

Was Alan Kats a hero or a murderer? I’ve thought about that question more than once. The honest answer is that it’s more complicated than either word.

What I keep coming back to is the note. He wasn’t acting out of rage. He was acting out of desperation, the kind that builds over years when you’ve lost everything and the system that was supposed to protect you keeps looking the other way. Justice delayed is fraud enabled. That’s not a bumper sticker. It’s what happened to this family.

I shine light on these cases because the same paper games run quietly through Miami-Dade property records, Broward County contract disputes, and Palm Beach estate filings every day. The suits are different. The shell companies have different names. The outcome for families is the same.

What You Can Actually Do

The first protection is unglamorous and it works: after you fund any private mortgage, confirm the lien is properly registered in the public record. A signature on a document is not security. The filing is. If it isn’t filed, it doesn’t exist.

The second is due diligence on everyone involved, the broker, the principals behind the broker, and anyone else who stands to benefit. When a return sounds unusually high for what appears to be minimal risk, treat that as the warning it is. Those legitimate “be the bank” deals do exist. They reward people who look first and ask hard questions before writing a check.

Don’t just protect your home. Protect your family. Protect your legacy.

 

If you’re involved in a real estate dispute involving forged documents, altered deeds, or questioned signatures, a forensic document examiner can help establish what actually happened on paper.

 

FloridaHandwritingExperts.com

Or call us: 1-305-459-1544. Your first consultation is free.

 

Bart Baggett
Forensic Document Examiner | Expert Witness | Legal Consultant
The Nation’s Leading Forensic Handwriting Expert
CEO, Handwriting Experts Inc.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

What is private lending fraud and how does it work?

Private lending fraud typically involves a borrower accepting investment funds and promising the lender a secured position on a mortgage, but never actually filing the lien with the county recorder. Without the registered filing, the lender has no legal claim to the property. The paperwork looks real. The security doesn’t exist.

 

How did Arash Missaghi avoid conviction for over 20 years?

By keeping his name off every document that connected him to the crimes. He operated through LLCs, shell companies, and rotating aliases. Without a paper trail linking him directly to the fraud, regulators and police could not secure a conviction despite two decades of complaints, court records, and documented financial damage.

 

What happened to the Kats family?

Alan Kats and his wife borrowed approximately $1.4 million against their paid-off home to invest in private mortgages through a broker connected to Missaghi. The lien was never filed. Their money was gone. After years of failed legal remedies, Kats entered the fraudster’s office with a firearm. Three people died, including Kats. He left behind a handwritten note asking authorities to stop the criminals from destroying more lives.

 

What is the single most important step to protect yourself in private lending?

Verify that the mortgage lien is properly registered in the public record after you fund. The signature on the agreement is not the protection. The filed lien is. If you fund a private mortgage and the lien isn’t registered within a reasonable time, stop. Get a real estate attorney involved immediately.

 

How common is real estate document fraud in South Florida?

It is more common than most people realize. Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties all see regular cases involving forged deeds, fraudulent mortgage documents, and manipulated property records. The volume of real estate transactions moving through South Florida, combined with the international nature of many deals, creates persistent opportunity for this type of fraud.

 

What role does a forensic document examiner play in real estate fraud cases?

A forensic document examiner analyzes the physical documents themselves: the signatures, the paper, the ink, the filing sequence, signs of alteration or fabrication. In real estate fraud cases, this can mean determining whether a deed was signed by the actual owner, whether documents were altered after signing, or whether a signature was forged to transfer property without the owner’s knowledge.

 

What should I do if I suspect my property deed has been forged or fraudulently transferred?

Act quickly. Pull your property records from the county property appraiser’s office and check for any transfers or liens you didn’t authorize. Contact a real estate attorney and a forensic document examiner. In Florida, fraudulent deed transfers can sometimes be reversed, but the longer you wait, the more complicated it becomes. Don’t assume the problem will surface on its own.