Loan Modification

Feds: CFO ripped off New Hope development firm

Posted on March 03, 2010
The former chief financial officer of a New Hope-based development corporation embezzled more than $6 million from the company over a nine-year period and invested some of the funds in his multi-million dollar shore home, federal authorities said Tuesday...

Homeowners aren?t the only victims of mortgage fraud

Posted on March 02, 2010
  Mortgage fraud isn?t only a result of professional con men tricking innocent homeowners. Federal figures and criminal cases indicate that deceptive borrowers are responsible for a large part of current losses on mortgage loans. According to a federal interagency called The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, borrowers or customers constitute 57 percent of the subjects of Suspicious [...

Colorado mortgage fraud case develops into civil rights charges

Posted on March 02, 2010
A Weld District Court judge has ruled in favor of eight Greeley-area Latino residents in their civil rights complaints against owners of a former Greeley real estate agency and its mortgage company for targeting Latino homebuyers with deceptive practices...

Judge Considers Fraud Charges Against Blixseth

Posted on March 01, 2010
Judge considers charges of fraud against ‘billionaire’ whose fortune may have dwindled The actual size of Yellowstone Club founder Tim Blixseth’s fortune could soon come to light as a a judge considers whether the high-flying real estate developer took hundreds of millions of dollars in a fraud scheme that left the exclusive resort broke...

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Woman pleads guilty to mortgage fraud

Posted on March 01, 2010

Annapolis Mortgage Broker Pleads Guilty in $2.3 Million Fraud Scheme

Posted on March 01, 2010
BALTIMORE, MD?David Wehrs, Sr., age 54, of Annapolis, Maryland, pleaded guilty today to wire fraud in connection with a scheme to defraud investors and financial institutions of more than $2.3 million. The charge was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J...

With the tough housing market in Michigan, house flipping can be risky.

Posted on February 28, 2010
Even with home improvements, some investors have had a difficult time getting houses rented because there are so many competing rental properties. Those who flipped just to sell are struggling, too, because of the high supply of homes that remain on the market and the pricing collapse in metro Detroit...

Trial begins for El Sobrante man charged with killing San Ramon mortgage lender

Posted on February 28, 2010
Greed and financial desperation drove an El Sobrante man to orchestrate the murder of a wealthy San Ramon mortgage lender who had long mentored him in the real estate business, a prosecutor told jurors Thursday during opening statements in Reginald Robinson’s murder trial...

Florida Real Estate Appraiser Sentenced to Four Years in Mortgage Fraud Scheme

Posted on February 26, 2010
United States Attorney A. Brian Albritton announces that U.S. District Judge Henry Lee Adams, Jr. yesterday sentenced Barry C. Westergom (age 60, of Jacksonville) to four years in federal prison for conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud. The court also ordered restitution in the amount of $866,141...

Authorities cracking down on South Florida scam artists

Posted on February 26, 2010
Mike Aliberti’s life hasn’t been the same since he was the victim of a mortgage fraud which destroyed his finances. “I was unable for such a long period of time to refinance my home,” Aliberti said yesterday. “I was unable to buy a car other than using cash because I couldn’t finance anything...

Rainbow City Woman Pleads Guilty to Mortgage Application Fraud and Embezzlement

Posted on February 26, 2010
A 56-year-old Rainbow City woman pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court to charges of bank and mortgage fraud that totaled more than $500,000, U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance and FBI Special Agent in Charge Patrick Maley announced. ROXANNE SAUNDERS GILLILAND entered guilty pleas before U...

Warning issued on foreclosure scams

Posted on February 25, 2010
Struggling homeowners on the verge of foreclosure are being warned by the state Attorney General’s Office of the latest mortgage-relief scam known as “forensic loan audits.” Forensic loan audits are what state Attorney General Jerry Brown calls “phony mortgage relief services” that charge upfront fees for a forensic review of loans but will [...

Richmond real estate promoter pleads guilty to mail fraud

Posted on February 25, 2010
A Richmond, VA, real estate promoter who cheated 22 investors out of more than $2 million and three banks out of $252,000 pleaded guilty to mail fraud in federal court yesterday. Robert S. Capehart, 54, faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 when sentenced May 24 by U...

Maine legislators fear mortgage scam cover-up

Posted on February 25, 2010
Likening the investigation into an alleged Meredith-based Ponzi scheme to Watergate, two Seacoast lawmakers have asked for a separate legislative inquiry into the matter. In a letter addressed to House Speaker Terie Norelli, state representatives James Splaine and Paul McEachern cited what they believe to be a conflict of interest between the Office [...

Quincy, Mass., man gets jail time for mortgage fraud

Posted on February 25, 2010
A 41-year-old Quincy man was sentenced to 42 months in federal prison on a mortgage-fraud conviction. In U.S. District Court on Tuesday, Judge Douglas P. Woodlock also gave Michael Hicks three years of supervised release following his imprisonment. An order of restitution was deferred for up to 90 days because one unit of [...

Virginia Beach Man Sentenced to Five Years for Wire Fraud and Mortgage Loan Scheme

Posted on February 24, 2010
Wayne Marlon Benedic Lezama, 44, of Virginia Beach, Va., was sentenced today in Norfolk federal court to five years in prison and ordered to pay $1.1 million in restitution for wire fraud in connection with a scheme to obtain over $4 million with 14 mortgage loans in the Tidewater area...

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Charges Three Defendants in Multi-Million-Dollar Mortgage Fraud Scheme

Posted on February 24, 2010
PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, JOSEPH M. DEMAREST JR., the Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Field Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (”FBI”), and BRIAN G. PARR, the Special Agent-in-Charge of the New York Field Office of the United States Secret [...

Placer County wealth seminar host charged with Ponzi fraud

Posted on February 24, 2010
A Placer County man who hosted hotel seminars promising his audience certain wealth has been charged with fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The civil complaint, filed Tuesday in Sacramento federal court, charges Lawrence “Lee” Loomis and his father-in-law, John Hagener, with taking at least $10 million from more than 100 investors by promising [...

Two convicted in real estate fraud

Posted on February 24, 2010
Two men, accused of selling the same property twice, were convicted on several counts, including grand larceny. Mavis Samuel, 41, and Carlyle Ebanks, 55, were charged with selling the same Crown Heights building twice, to two different straw buyers...

California Named No. 1 State for Mortgage Fraud Risk

Posted on February 24, 2010
In the fourth quarter of 2009, California had the highest mortgage fraud risk, according the quarterly Mortgage Fraud Risk Report released Friday by Agoura Hills, California-based Interthinx, a provider of risk mitigation and regulatory compliance tools for the financial services industry...

Sacramento men face federal charges in alleged ?massive? fraud case

Posted on February 24, 2010
Two Sacramento-area men were charged today by securities regulators with running a massive Ponzi scheme that might be the largest mortgage fraud case in the history of the region. The Securities and Exchange Commission said it charged Lawrence Leland “Lee” Loomis and his father-in-law, John Hagener, in a civil complaint, “with misappropriating approximately [...

Buyer beware: Mortgage modification ?audits? can be huge ripoff

Posted on February 24, 2010
So-called “forensic audits” are often nothing more than con games bilking distressed homeowners out of money they certainly can’t afford to just toss away. One high-ranking California law enforcement official is trying to steer people away from them...

FFIEC: Reverse Mortgage Market Growth Has Created Lucrative Environment for Fraud

Posted on February 24, 2010
The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) released an updated edition of its white paper on mortgage fraud detection and deterrence. The Detection and Deterrence of Mortgage Fraud Against Financial Institutions: 2009 Mortgage Fraud White Paper is meant to help examiners understand, identify, and detect mortgage fraud schemes and elements...

Three Coloradans indicted in alleged mortgage-fraud scheme

Posted on February 24, 2010
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Nonprofit launches loan modification scam campaign

Posted on February 23, 2010
NeighborWorks, a national nonprofit created by Congress in 1974, has launched a campaign that is loan modification scam central: tips on how to spot scams, numbers to call if you suspect you are being scammed and poignant vignettes of people who have been scammed...

Real Estate Fraudster, Fugitive Arrested

Posted on February 23, 2010
A title company owner, who operated Homemaxx Title & Escrow, was arrested in Palm Beach, Florida. He had been a fugitive since March 26, 2009, when a federal grand jury in Maryland, returned an indictment charging him with wire fraud and money laundering in connection with a scheme to defraud lenders and [...

How To Protect Yourself From Real Estate Fraud

Posted on February 23, 2010
In the earlier days, it was easy to buy, refinance or sell properties. The buying and selling process are straightforward and people were more trustworthy than today. Communities were small and people know about properties that are for sale by word of mouth...

Real-estate scam nets 5 years in prison

Posted on February 23, 2010
One of two men indicted for defrauding investors who believed their money was being used to finance home construction in Colorado Springs and a high-tech business campus near Larkspur has been sentenced to five years in prison. Derek Roy Kent, 64, has also been ordered to pay restitution of $765,477 to his victims...

Richmond investment firm boss charged with mail fraud

Posted on February 22, 2010
Donald C. Lacey, who ran a real estate investment firm involving investors from the Richmond area and millions of dollars, has been accused in federal court of making false promises and rarely using the money for real estate projects. The U.S. attorney’s office charged Lacey, a former Henrico County police officer, [...

BANKING: Regulators seize La Jolla Bank, citing possible fraud, bad commercial loans

Posted on February 22, 2010
At 5 p.m. Friday, federal regulators filed into the 10 branches of La Jolla Bank FSB and closed it down. A victim of the exploded commercial real estate bubble and possibly the perpetrator of loan fraud, the bank had 5,000 percent more capital in its outstanding commercial building and development loans than it [...

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