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REPORTED IN THE COURT OF SPECIAL APPEALS OF MARYLAND No. 1785

September Term, 2005

DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT v. ARTHUR HOFFMAN

Eyler, James R., Krauser, Woodward, JJ.

Opinion by Krauser, J.

Filed: September 22, 2006

Arthur Hoffman, appellee, was employed as an real estate appraiser by the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development ("the Department"), appellant. That employment ended

when the Department learned from a recent decision of this Court, Hoffman v. Stamper, 155 Md. App. 247 (2004) (Hoffman I),1 that Hoffman had participated in a "flipping"2 scheme, before he joined the Department. The scheme involved fraud and conspiracy to

defraud, as well as violations of the Consumer Protection Act3 and "ethical codes and uniform standards governing appraisers." Id. at 301 n.13. To be more specific, he was judicially found to have

violated the former by materially misrepresenting in his appraisals the value of what were falsely claimed by his co-conspirators to be "rehabbed" properties and the latter by knowingly destroying

We designate this Court's decision in that case "Hoffman I" to distinguish it from the Court of Appeals's decision in the same case, Hoffman v. Stamper, 385 Md. 1 (2005), which we shall refer to as "Hoffman II." "Flipping" is the colloquialism for the act of buying property at a low price and quickly reselling it for profit. It "is not illegal per se; however, when an immediate resale is attended by acts of fraud or misrepresentation, including but not limited to, appraisals with inflated property values and other misleading or fraudulent documentation, it can result in a predatory transaction." Fannie Mae Announcement 04-07 on Illegal Flipping, available at http://www.efanniemae.com/sf/guides/ssg/annltrs/pdf/2004/04-07.pd f. Maryland's Consumer Protection Act, Md. Code (1975, 2005 Repl. Vol.),

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Maryland Law