@Timothy Grothuesmann  What your describing is Collusion.. and is highly illegal its a felony.people get busted all over the US doing this.. its not an advanced scheme its criminal acitivty.its called lunch money ,, Walk away money, wink and nod money   etc etc.FBI gets wind of being rampant in a market and they will send in schills...

With the problems they have, any landlord doing a criminal or credit background check on these low-lifes won't touch them.

.- As everyone said, get a lawyer ASAP for a civil and possibly criminal trial.

They recruit, interview, check references, skills test, criminal background check and drug test. 

Leaving it vacant for a year won't change anything and could likely even provide evidence of intent to commit mortgage fraud if you're prosecuted.

Jay, I will give you that there are a lot of yahoos who do stupid and criminal things.

Can I still run a background check on them at Some only require a name birthday and a prior address to run a criminal background check 

Pull credit, judgment, and criminal reports.

In my area, they have recently made it a violation to turn down an applicant for having a criminal record. 

Same reason people ask criminal record.