David Crisp and Carl Cole, the image-makers of Bakersfield’s bygone real estate boom, ended the year deep in a quagmire of home loan defaults, allegations of deceptive borrowing practices, civil lawsuits and an ongoing FBI investigation.

Although Cole, 60, left the now-defunct Crisp & Cole Real Estate agency in 2006, the pair were still talking up ambitious deals at the year’s start.

In January, Cal State Bakersfield granted conceptual approval for Cole and Crisp to develop the Crisp & Cole University Towers, a set of proposed 31-story luxury condo structures meant to rise above CSUB’s campus.

By April, state investigators had accused Cole of employing an unlicensed salesman and letting him work on more than 50 loans at Tower Lending, Crisp & Cole’s former mortgage brokerage.

Soon after, Crisp, 28, began to amass a small pile of default notices, which signal late mortgage payments, on home loans taken out by himself and family members.

Eventually, more than 100  troubled properties would be linked to Crisp, Cole, their family members and associates through an ongoing Californian tally.

Next the IRS smacked Crisp and his wife, Jennifer, with a $111,170 lien in back taxes and penalties.

By July, CSUB had nixed its condo tower negotiations with Cole and Crisp.

Later that month, tenants in homes in the North Country Meadows subdivision said they were in a lease-to-buy program run by Crisp & Cole Real Estate. Some had no idea the homes they hoped to own were in default until contacted by reporters.

Lawsuits by debtors started to stack up.

In September, the state Department of Real Estate filed a complaint against Cole, Crisp and three employees. They allegedly misled lenders on more than $12 million worth of loans, according to the complaint.

Two days later, more than 75 federal agents swarmed over 13 properties related to the former Crisp & Cole agency. Both men’s offices and homes were searched, as was the office of San Joaquin Appraisals Inc., a home appraisal business owned by Kirk “Mark” Newton.

The Crisp & Cole office is gone today, replaced by a real estate office specializing in bank-owned properties. Crisp’s 6,666-square-foot Seven Oaks mansion was repossessed by the bank.

As of the first week in December, at least 105 defaulted and foreclosed properties are linked to associates of the former Crisp & Cole companies, according to an ongoing Californian tally.

More than $64.6 million was borrowed against the homes, according to The Californian's analysis of county filings.

So far, 61 have foreclosed.

The FBI has not filed charges, but the investigation remains open.

— BY VANESSA GREGORY, Californian staff writer, vgregory@bakersfield.com