California Surveyors Forums

You betcha!

Jimmy Jen was accused of unlicensed practice of Land Surveying and Civil
Engineering and jailed on $50 million bail following his arrest last
Tuesday and is expected to be arraigned Friday on 232 separate felony
counts.

Jen's employee, Jian Min Fong, was being held on nearly $2.3 million
bail on charges that he was involved in the scheme.


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... 1EOQ8C.DTL

20 years preparing and filing maps before he was caught.

So I wounder what happens to the subdivisions that he prepared, filed and lots sold?

Would title insurance cover it?

The lots are not legal, so do the owners get a refund in property taxes?

The list of questions could go on and on and on.

The above is a real case of fraud.

There was a surveyor in my area that had his own office, business cards and crews. When he needed something signed he had a deal with a local CE.
The State Board knew about him and even contacted him but never did anything about it.
After about 15-20 years he applied for his LS and passed the test. The CE was probably retiring.
Personally, I never understood why he was allowed to stay in business and why, after so many years of snubbing his nose at the State Board, they allowed him to get a license.

Lots of questions from this - No idea if this was ever brought to BPELS attention in the last 20 years. Didn't someone at the City/County know who he was and know he was using someone else's stamp?

If you see unlicensed practice in your area, file a complaint and/or urge the person who hired the unlicensed person to do so. If we were Doctors, and we knew someone was practicing medicine without a license would we sit back and wonder what to do about it? If your Doctor knew about someone and did nothing, how would you feel?

Surveying is not a matter of life and death - it's MORE important than that!

We need to help the Board protect the public. The Board is moving faster on complaints - that is a priority for DCA these days. BPELS has been clearing the old cases and shortening the time that it takes to investigate and prosecute new ones. If you see a problem, collect evidence, document the issue and present it to the local PPC, or send it up to the Board.

Is there any cases against an architect or builder who have submitted site plans that show a boundary? A surveyor posed this question to me yesterday and I don't recall any. Unfortunately our planning department does not check to see if the existing site mapping was done by a PLS, although they require a survey on their check list.

Wow, I hope they lock this guy up for a long time.

I think a press release from CLSA heartily condemning such activities would be appropriate.

Unfortunately, BPELS does not have investigators whose job it is to go out and get to the bottom of these things, so simply reporting someone to the Board for unlicensed practice usually doesn't result in anything (of substance) happening. You need to supply them with proof of unlicensed practice. In other words, you need to investigate it and give them the case. Then they are equipped to do something about it. But even then, they are limited in what they can do (cease & desist order, disconnect phone, administrative fine and investigative costs).

For any real consequences to the unlicensed practitioner, the DA must be persuaded to file charges. Most DAs can't be bothered with unlicensed practice because they're too busy prosecuting "real" crimes. For them to take notice, it needs to be something big.

In the State I started surveying in, and several others where I have worked, being found guilty of unlicensed practice was an automatic and permanent bar from ever obtaining your license to practice in that State. I find it ludicrous that CA would allow someone found to have been engaging in such activity to take the exam. But then again, someone caught cheating on the exam here is welcom to retake the exam in future years. Ridiculous!

I have contacted the board a few times, but nothing was ever done other then sending a letter. Two of the reports were against a city Engineer for not practicing what the city preaches. A BS letter from the City engr ended it.

The other case on a unlicensed surveyor the board wanted a contract or something similar. Without know his clients or misrepresenting myself there was no way to give the board what they wanted.

So unlicensed life goes on.

To Rob LS if you read my earlier post - the Board knew about that unlicensed surveyor and even contacted him but never stopped him from owning and running a land survey company

PLS - I read your comment today, then found a warning sign against an unlicensed medical doctor.

http://failblog.org/2010/08/17/sound-advice-win-2/