DETROIT – A Michigan woman’s path took her from real estate success to federal prison -- but that sentence wasn’t the ending of her story. It was the beginning of new inspiration.
Business woman Annetta Powell calls herself a serial entrepreneur. She was caught up in a scandal of her own making in 2008 as a building real estate mogul. She developed a scheme of rolling down payments into mortgages for her clients.
“So, say for instance the house was $100,000 and you needed 20 percent out. I paid the 20 percent,” she said.
She made a fortune flipping properties, with a side of fraud. Federal authorities caught on to her scheme and she was sentenced to federal prison.
She said she went to prison with a strategy and when she was released she enacted that plan. She believes that as bad as it is for people who have lost their jobs, lost their pay checks, and lost their way -- there is a way back. She said the way back often has to start when you think there’s no hope left.
Her message is to find the strength within you. Beat back the gravity of your situation and find a place to climb your way out. Now, she has left behind her rap sheet and gone back to real estate building numerous revenue streams.
Her real estate company has sold more than 600 properties.
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