March 23rd, 2012 at 9:04am
A Gonzalez-area woman who admitted operating a Ponzi scheme has been sentenced to three years in prison, but the sentence was stayed by the judge if she completes restitution.
Maria Ponce was sentenced by Judge Adrienne Grover but the judge’s priority is to seek repayment of the stolen funds for the victims, mostly Latinos.
Ponce admitted that her scheme caused $145,000 in losses from 57 people who were in foreclosure. Many of the victims testified to the court as to the devastation caused by Ponce’s loan modification scam, which required upfront fees.
Prosecutors contended that Maria Ponce was very sophisticated and knew exactly what she was doing when she solicited her victims.
Read the original article in the Contra Costa Times.
March 8th, 2012 at 10:30pm
The real estate and mortgage crisis has been the breeding ground of many frauds: loan modification fraud, short sale fraud, REO fraud and ongoing mortgage fraud.
Prosecutions for loan modification fraud is usually recognized as the demanding of advance fees for the purveyor to act as an intermediary to negotiate a loan modification for a homeowner in foreclosure. Illegal since 2009, both former Attorney General and now Governor Jerry Brown and current Attorney General Kamala D. Harris have been busy arresting and prosecuting firms and individuals for that crime.
Today was special in that now the prosecutions are including attorneys who either “rented” their licenses to others to operate loan modification businesses or set up shop themselves and failed to perform the promised services.
Arrested and charged with 19 felony counts were Gregory Flahive of El Dorado Hills, 39, Cynthia Flahive of Folsom, 41, and Mike Johnson of Elk Grove, 42. The Flahives are divorced from each other but were owners of Flahive Law Corporation; Johnson was the managing attorney for their firm, which advertised via flyers radio and televised infomercials
According to AG Harris: “Homeowners facing foreclosure are being targeted by predators, including those who use their law license to gain credibility and scam innocent Californians. My office’s Mortgage Fraud Strike Force is dedicated full-time to cracking down on these deceptive practices and protecting homeowners from fraud like this.”
Read the California Attorney General’s press release for more information.
March 8th, 2012 at 9:46pm
Five men have been arrested and charged with loan modification fraud for demanding upfront fees (illegal in California since 2009) for helping property owners trying to avoid foreclosure.
The defendants were investigated by the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIG-TARP), the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, Huntington Beach Police Department, the California Department of Real Estate and other local policing agencies.
After their arrests this week, the men were charged with at least seven counts of felony grand theft and various other charges including conspiracy to commit forgery and money laundering.
Jacob J. Cunningham, 24, of Irvine; Justin D. Koelle, 23, of Costa Mesa; Andrew M. Phalen, 25, of Mission Viejo; Dominic A. Nolan, 30, of Irvine; and John D. Silva, 27, of Irvine are now facing multiple counts of conspiracy to commit forgery and money laundering.
The businesses they operated to commit their alleged loan modification scams were CSFA Home Solutions, Mortgage Solution Specialists, Inc., CS & Associates and National Mortgage Relieve Center. If prosecutors are right, Cunningham, Nolan and Silva operated an addition scam in which they forged the logos from major lenders and sent out “conditional approval” letters to their victims.
Read the original article in The Republic and the Orange County Breeze.
February 24th, 2012 at 9:10am
John Zepeda, 60, who pleaded guilty in 2011 rent skimming, forgery, identity theft and conspiracy to commit grand theft, has been sentenced to 12 years in prison and ordered to pay $6 million in restitution. His brother David Zepeda, 59, has been charged in a related case, along with Carlos M. Torres and Patricia Torres.
John Zepeda held seminars for people in foreclosure and convinced them to transfer title or quitclaim their properties to him so that he could save their homes from foreclosure. Sometimes he just forged the quitclaim deed (title fraud). He took money upfront for his so-called services (loan modification fraud, foreclosure fraud) and victimized people from Los Angeles to San Diego. After illegally acquiring the properties, Zepeda then rented them out (rent skimming) and used the proceeds to enjoy the finer things in life.
Read the original article in 10News.com.
December 18th, 2011 at 11:45am
Four men associated with 1st American Law Center have pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges in San Diego federal court of fleecing desperate homeowners of more than $11 million in a loan modification fraud.
Gary Michael Bobel, 59, Scott Thomas Spencer, 35, Mark Andrew Spencer, 32, and Travis Corey Iverson, 35, have entered their guilty please. A fifth employee, Roger Trent Jones, pleaded guilty last year and was sentenced to 21 months for his participation.
Gary Bobel opened up the loan modification business in 2008 with business partner Dean Chandler, who paid for the advertising. Homeowners were charged from $1,995 to $4,495 for loan modification “services” and were told, falsely, as it turned out, that a team of attorneys at the firm had a 98% success rate in getting homeowners the loan modifications they needed.
Read the original article in 10News.com. Click here to watch a video recording of the story on 10News.com. If you google “1st American Law Center” you will find many complaints about this business that have been posted.
December 1st, 2011 at 6:21pm
Twin sisters and one of their associates have been arrested on multiple counts of operating a loan modification scam in Stockton.
Magdalena Salas, 42, the owner of Legacy Home Loans, her twin sister Angelina Mireles, 42, and Julissa Garcia, 36, were charged with 13 felonies and two misdemeanor, including conspiracy, grand theft and false advertising. The three are accused of circulating flyers in English and Spanish that guarantee to save the homes of distressed borrowers and promising a refund if the homeowner did not receive a loan modification. Homeowners were charged $5,000 upfront for these services, which is illegal in California.
The case was a cooperative investigation between the California Office of the Attorney General, the San Joaquin District Attorney’s Office, the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP), the California Department of Real Estate (DRE) and the Stockton Police Department. According to California AG Kamala Harris,
“These scam artists preyed on innocent homeowners who were simply trying to protect their homes and families from foreclosure. The mortgage crisis has caused tremendous damage to our state and to California families. There is nothing worse than those who seek to capitalize on this devastation by defrauding Californians who have already been victimized in this crisis.”
Salas operated not only Legacy Home Loans but also Salas Properties, Salas Estates, Peace and Freedom Legal Services and Divinity Legal Services. Magadalena Salas’ license to practice real estate was revoked in 2008, according to DRE records. Mireles and Garcia have real estate licenses but no broker affiliations, meaning they may not engage in services which require a license from the DRE.
Read the original press release by the California Office of the Attorney General.
November 24th, 2011 at 3:15pm
A woman out on bail when she committed new crimes has been sentenced to five years for operating a mortgage rescue scam, according to a press release by Attorney General Kamala D. Harris.
Angeline Lisa Lizarrago, 69, soon to be formerly from Fremont, was sentenced today to five years for a foreclosure scam in which numerous homeowners in the Bay Area and Central Valley were victimized by her illegal foreclosure prevention business, Avemos Financial Group. She had been charged with 23 counts of felony fraud and theft.
Michael Douglas Young, 68, the general manager of Avemos, has also been charged and will be tried in January 2012.
Lizarrago and Young had a unique marketing tactic that included placing shrines of the Virgin Mary in the lobby of their business. As with many foreclosure fraud schemes, theirs included requiring the payment of upfront fees, which is illegal in California.
The case against Lizarrago resulted from the combined efforts of the California Attorney General, Alameda County District Attorney Nancy E. O’Malley, the California Department of Real Estate (DRE) and the Fremont Police Department.
Read the press release for the California Attorney General.
November 24th, 2011 at 3:03pm
A judge has thrown the book at a 42-year-old Stockton man with a history of felony and misdemeanor convictions.
San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge Xapuri Villapudua imposed an eight-year prison sentence on Jonathan William Barker, who was convicted of running an illegal loan modification scam. Barker was convicted after three of his victims testified that he cold-called them with promises to modify their loans. He charged them up to $1,750 for this illegal service and was also operating without a real estate license.
Barker was prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney James Lewis, of the Major Fraud and Real Estate Unit.
Read the original article in RecordNet.com.
October 27th, 2011 at 9:24am
Despite efforts by the California Department of Real Estate (DRE) to stop loan modification fraud – and even prosecutions by the California Office of the Attorney General to do the same – such activity is still occurring, especially in certain communities.
A recent article in California Watch highlights two such cases.
In the first, George Bolanos, who allegedly operates under multiple names and is unlicensed in real estate, was issued a cease-and-refrain letter by the DRE. Bolanos was advertising loan modification services to Spanish language media and requiring upfront fees, which are illegal in California.
Another recipient of a DRE cease-and-refrain letter is the firm JC Ruiz Capital Group, which also goes by the name Maxima Home Loans. The letter dates to 2009 but the owner is still operating his loan business. JC Ruiz drew the DRE’s attention also for charging upfront fees for loan modifications, which he runs through his other business, called First America Financial Consulting. The Better Business Bureau gives JC Ruiz Capital an “F” rating on its website due to the following reasons, which I copied from their information:
∙ BBB concerns with the industry in which this business operates
∙ Length of time business has been operating25 complaint(s) filed
against business
∙ Failure to respond to 13 complaint(s) filed against business
∙ 2 complaint(s) filed against business that were not resolved
∙ 14 serious complaint(s) filed against businessOverall complaint
history with BBB
∙ Government action(s) against business
September 13th, 2011 at 6:26am
Two men have been arrested and charged with 45 counts related to an alleged foreclosure rescue scam which prosecutors say cost $17 million in losses.
Stephan Andrew Easterly and Emanuel Percival were arrested at the offices of Fidelity Group Realty in Fontana. Fidelity has operated under dozens of DBAs according to the DRE‘s website. According to Deputy District Attorney Michael Fermin, most of the victims were in foreclosure and paid between $3,500 and $7,000 (loan modification fraud) to get either get their loans paid off (??) or monthly payments reduced.
Easterly and Percival are accused of holding themselves out as “authorized” bank representatives and signing and filing documents indicating the mortgages were paid off (title fraud). In addition, prosecutors said that Easterly made up his own checks to show the homeowners the loans were paid off.
Read the original article in National Mortgage News.
