Kenneth and Christine Legler, a West View couple who sold their house two years ago, are now wondering whom they sold it to.

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At the time they signed a settlement statement, they thought they'd sold the home to Easy Realty Solutions, whose president, James Platts, came to Mr. Legler's attention by scooping up at-risk mortgages held by a bank where Mr. Legler had worked.

Unbeknownst to the Leglers, Mr. Platts had pleaded guilty to a dozen counts of fraud and theft in connection with the home building business he once ran. He was indicted earlier this year on charges of tax evasion.

The Leglers say they were unwittingly tied in to a sale now under investigation by the Pennsylvania attorney general's office. They say Mr. Platts told them he was buying their home at 22 Fairview Ave. in West View for $58,200 -- an amount their mortgage holder agreed to take to settle an outstanding mortgage debt of more than $86,000.

But when the time came to sign the papers for 22 Fairview, the Leglers say they were given a settlement statement that showed the house selling for $96,000. The buyers were a couple named David and Jerri Bauman, a mentally challenged couple who had dreamed of owning a home.

While sales documents show the Leglers receiving $2,500 in a deposit, more than $10,000 in cash and a second mortgage in the sale of the home, they say they got nothing. In fact, they say, Mr. Platts kept a $5,000 deposit they had given him to find them a new home.

The Leglers said they believed they had sold the house to Mr. Platts for $58,200, an amount they said was reached between Mr. Platts and Select Portfolio Servicing, which was the successor to their original mortgage holder, Fairbanks Mortgage. But after that arrangement -- for which they said they were given no paperwork -- they were asked to attend a closing with the Baumans.

"We couldn't figure out why we had to go to the closing," Mr. Legler said.

When he signed a settlement statement, Mr. Legler said, he found an entirely different set of numbers -- including a $96,000 sales price. He said no names had been placed on the document.

"I said 'How did you get $96,000 on this?' " Mr. Legler recalled. "He [Mr. Platts] goes, 'Don't worry. I fixed the numbers.' I said how'd you fix the numbers? He said that's the amount I'm getting for your house, but I'm only paying off $58,000. He said, 'I have a contact at Fairbanks.'"

Select Portfolio Servicing, the successor to Fairbanks, received an entirely different settlement statement that showed a payoff of $58,200 with no money going to the sellers.

It also listed Easy Realty Solutions as the buyer, although the firm never recorded a deed for the property and the higher-price sale was going on in another room at the law offices where the Leglers signed the papers. In that room, the Baumans were buying the house for $96,000, with the Leglers listed on the papers as the sellers.

That sale has left the Baumans in dire straits. They were approved for a $86,000 mortgage, were assigned a second mortgage that presumably was from the Leglers, and had no way of meeting the payments. A mortgage qualifying application obtained through S&P Mortgage Services of Franklin Park showed an income level at least $1,000 more per month than the Bauman family brings in from David's job as a grocery bagger and Jerri's monthly disability check.

The Leglers were presented yesterday with a copy of what purported to be the $9,600 second mortgage on which they were listed as the lenders.

"I've never seen this paper in my life. What is this?" Christine Legler said.

The document carries no signatures other than those of the Baumans, and court documents in Allegheny County record the mortgage being signed over to Mr. Platts' company.

Last week, the failure of the kind of sub-prime loans held by both the Leglers and the Baumans sent the stock market tumbling amid revelations that investment funds created by Wall Street firms that purchased an interest in those mortgages were going bankrupt.

The Leglers are among dozens of couples who say they've been deceived by Mr. Platts and his firm as he cut a swath across the region's real estate market in the past several years. They complain that he took deposits ranging from $5,000 to $10,000. In the Leglers' case, they say he kept the money, which he said was to go toward the purchase of a home as part of his rent-to-own program.

Instead, they say they were unable to qualify for a home loan to complete the transaction, which they say was part of the overall deal when they disposed of the Fairview Avenue home.

Word of the two sets of settlement statements -- one faxed to SPS in Utah and a different one recording the true sales price -- came as a surprise to Craig Bullock, executive vice president of SPS.

"That certainly is not something we would be involved in. We certainly would not have gone into that kind of situation," he said.

Although the settlement statement shows the sellers getting more than $10,000 in cash, $2,500 in a deposit and a $9,600 second mortgage, the Leglers said they left the deal with nothing.

Mr. Platts has not returned repeated telephone calls and an e-mailed statement asking for comment.