March 2nd, 2010 at 1:42pm
This is the story of an attorney who is about to lose his right to practice law.
The California Bar Journal reported that Christopher Lee Diener (#187890) is being charged by the Orange County District Attorney’s Office with one count of conspiracy to commit grand theft, 116 counts of grand theft by false pretenses and one count of perjury. Prosecutors allege that Diener, Stefano Joseph Marrero and Terrence Green Sr. set up a loan modification business using the names Home Relief Services, LLC; US Loan Mod Processing, HRS Communications, the Diener Law Firm and Diener Law Group. Marrero and Green were the managing partners and Christopher Diener was the attorney.
Marrero and Green promised borrowers in default that they could facilitate loan modifications in 90 days if the borrowers made advance payments (illegal in California) to Diener. California Attorney General Jerry Brown has filed a claim for civil penalties against all three men, who have also received a desist and refrain order from the California Department of Real Estate to forbid them from soliciting new clients.
Read the full article in the California Bar Journal.
February 22nd, 2010 at 11:56am
In a press release, California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown sent out an alert to distressed homeowners: do not be duped into paying for a forensic loan audits.
According to AG Brown, forensic loan audits are the latest ploy by foreclosure consultants, mortgage relief firms, foreclosure assistance firms, loan modification firms and the like to extract upfront fees from their victims without providing any actual foreclosure relief. These firms are forbidden by law from charging advance fees, must register with Brown’s office and post a $100,000 bond. In the past year the AG’s office has shut down at least 30 of these parasitic companies and has prosecuted numerous licensed (and unlicensed) real estate professionals and attorneys who have violated the law. And the Department of Real Estate (DRE) is actively carrying out investigations and issuing cease-and-desist orders to companies and individuals who cross the line, according to Real Estate Commissioner Jeff Davi.
Read the press release on the California Attorney General’s website.
September 30th, 2009 at 2:17pm
Attorneys who fell prey to the siren call of easy money doing loan modifications for homeowners in distress are now finding out that if they didn’t provide the promised services, their law licenses could be at risk.
Not only is the California State Attorney General’s Office investigating attorneys for loan modification fraud, but the California State Bar is now taking unprecedented action to rein in “lawyers preying on vulnerable homeowners”, says a press release on the Bar’s website. What is even more astounding is that Interim Chief Trial Counsel Russell Weiner is waiving the normal confidentiality that occurs during investigations in favor of protecting consumers by naming names.
Read more about this investigation - including the names - on Examiner.com by the L.A. Fraud Examiner.
