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Real Estate & Property Law

The Home Equity Theft Reporter

Welcome to The Home Equity Theft Reporter, a blog dedicated to informing the consumer public and the legal profession about Home Equity Theft issues.
By r morris

Post Frequency: 25.7/day

Last Entry: September 06, 2017 at 04:02:00

Central Florida Feds Expect To Bag 100+ Suspects In Upcoming Mortgage Fraud Indictments

Posted on July 13, 2009
In Central Florida, the Bradenton Herald reports:Federal authorities are investigating several suspected cases of mortgage fraud in Manatee and Sarasota counties as part of a larger statewide crackdown, the Bradenton Herald has learned. Those investigations are zeroing in on organized groups and industry insiders suspected of defrauding mortgage lenders out of tens of millions of dollars during

Trustees In Mortgage Securitizations May Begin Finding Themselves In The Crosshairs As "Joint Venturers" In Lawsuits Seeking To Impose Fraud Liability

Posted on July 13, 2009
The New York Times reports on the hot water facing many of those big institutions who played any part in the creation and peddling of mortgage securitized interests in toxic loans:Some legal experts point to a number of cases in which plaintiffs contend that firms involved in the securitization process, like trustees hired to oversee the pools of loans backing securities, worked so closely with

Onslaught Of Chapter 11 Filings Expected From Condo Associations Suffering From Decrease In Maintenance Fee Collections, Deadbeat Unit Owners?

Posted on July 13, 2009
In South Florida, the Daily Business Review reports:In a move an increasing number of condo associations are expected to follow, the Maison Grande in Miami Beach has filed for bankruptcy.(1) Facing almost $1 million in claims by unsecured creditors, a troublesome recreational lease, and at least 100 unit owners [out of 502] delinquent on payments of their fees, the association filed a Chapter 11

$900K Real Estate Deposit Part Of $2.2M In Escrow Cash Ripped Off From Clients By NYC Attorney, Says Manhattan DA

Posted on July 13, 2009
From the Office of the Manhattan District Attorney:Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau announced [Wednesday] the second indictment charging a lawyer with stealing settlement and escrow monies from his clients. This second indictment charges the defendant with stealing more than $1...

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NYC Man To Pay $95K Restitution For Home Sold Out From Under Elderly Stroke Victim; Agrees To Cough Up $40K By Sept. To "Buy Out" Of 3-9 Year Sentence

Posted on July 13, 2009
From the Office of the Queens County District Attorney:Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown [Thursday] announced that a St. Albans an has pleaded guilty to stealing the identity of a 68-year-old Jamaica, Queens, man who had been disabled as a result of a stroke and then secretly selling his house out from under him and pocketing the profits...

Obama Administration About To Turn Up The Heat On Mortgage Servicing Industry Over Sluggishness In Making Loan Modifications?

Posted on July 13, 2009
A column in The New York Times reports on an invitation recenly extended(1) by the Treasury & HUD Secretaries to the top 25 mortgage loan servicers to get together in Washington on July 28 for a chat:The subject of the meeting is going to be loan modifications...

Chicago-Area Homeowners In Foreclosure Urged To Show Up To Court "Case Management Call" To Seek Assistance

Posted on July 13, 2009
In Chicago, Illinois, the Southwest News Herald reports:Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown said a recent administrative order issued by a Chancery Court judge represents a second chance for many homeowners facing foreclosures to have their cases heard in July and August, noting that some may be able to save their homes through mediation...

Ohio Woman Gets Help From Non Profit Law Firm In Saving Home From Foreclosure, Filing Suit Alleging Loan Modification, "Rescue" Scam

Posted on July 12, 2009
In Hamilton, Ohio, the Middletown Journal reports:A Middletown woman filed suit Thursday, July 9, in Butler County Common Pleas Court against two Cincinnati-based companies and a Kentucky attorney alleging a foreclosure rescue scam, according to the Legal Aid Society of Southwest Ohio...

Rent Skimming Landlords Pocketing Gov't Rent Subsidies While In Foreclosure; Section 8 Tenants Forced Out Onto Street With Trampled Legal Rights

Posted on July 12, 2009
In Central Florida, WFTV-TV Channel 9 reports:A growing number of Central Florida's poorest residents are being forced out of their rental homes because their landlords aren't making the mortgage payments. Eyewitness News reporter Berndt Petersen found out that more and more Section 8 landlords are taking the federal rent payments while they default on the mortgages...

Wells Fargo Suing Itself In Foreclosure Actions Becoming Common??? Proliferation Of 80/20 Mortgages During Housing Boom Cited As Reason

Posted on July 12, 2009
In Hillsborough County, Florida, Dow Jones Newswires columnist Al Lewis opines:You can't expect a bank that is dumb enough to sue itself to know why it is suing itself. Yet I could not resist asking Wells Fargo Bank NA why it filed a civil complaint against itself in a mortgage foreclosure case in Hillsborough County, Fla...

Long Island Man Found Guilty Of Hijacking Homes In Foreclosure & Renting Them Out To Unwitting Tenants

Posted on July 12, 2009
In Riverhead, New York, North Country Gazette reports:After a three week trial and three hours of deliberations, a Suffolk jury convicted a Medford man Friday of burglary, grand larceny and fraud charges for breaking into foreclosed houses in Patchogue, Medford, Shirley, and Holbrook and renting out the homes to unsuspecting tenants...

Notice Of Disciplinary Charges Filed By State Bar Against California Attorney In Connection With Disgruntled Loan Modification Client

Posted on July 12, 2009
In Southern California, the Orange County Register reports:One state regulator has faced a hurdle in trying to stop companies from scamming people who need help avoiding foreclosure. But this week another agency stepped in to join the fight. The California State BAR on July 7 filed its first disciplinary case against an attorney related to the burgeoning, and sometimes messy, loan modification

Cook County Sheriff Charges Four With Digging Up Graves & Reselling Plots, Allegedly Netting Scammers $300K

Posted on July 12, 2009
In Aslip, Illinois, The Associated Press reports:Prosecutors on Thursday charged three gravediggers and a manager in an elaborate scheme in which hundreds of corpses were dug up at a historic black cemetery near Chicago and strewn in a weeded area or reburied with other bodies so that plots could be resold, authorities said...

Sentencing Phase Finally Begins In Maryland Equity Stripping, Straw Buyer, Sale Leaseback Foreclosure Rescue Scam; 1st Of 10 Defendants Gets 10 Years

Posted on July 11, 2009
From the Office of the U.S. Attorney (Maryland):U.S. District Judge Roger W. Titus sentenced Kurt Fordham, age 39, of Ft. Washington, Maryland, [Friday] to 10 years in prison, followed by five years of supervised release for conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud in connection with a mortgage fraud scheme that falsely promised to help homeowners facing foreclosure keep their homes and repair

NYC Controller Urges All Brooklyn Residents To "Make Out A Will ASAP!" To Avoid Risk Of Getting Fleeced By Public Administrator's Office

Posted on July 11, 2009
In Brooklyn, New York, the New York Daily News reports:Brooklyn's scandal-plagued court system gets a new black eye in a scathing audit that found the borough's public administrator's office riddled with "mismanagement and laziness." The city controller's office uncovered shoddy recordkeeping, suspicious real estate deals and auctions run by a shadowy company that vanished when auditors started

NYC Controller: Bronx Public Admisistrator's Office Plays Fast & Loose With Dead People's Property

Posted on July 11, 2009
In The Bronx, New York, the New York Daily News reports:Bronx court officials broke the law by investing $21 million in risky securities with money from the estates of dead people, a new audit charges. City Controller William Thompson charged the public administrator's office in Bronx Surrogate's Court violated state law three years ago, when it placed 30% ofthe cash it was holding for heirs with

The BC Public Guardian's Office: A Ruthless Organization Abusing The Rights Of The Very People It Claims To Protect?

Posted on July 11, 2009
In Vancouver, British Columbia, CBC News reports:When Winifred Hall entered her friend Sheila Scholnick's home in Vancouver's west side after she was locked out, the place looked as though there had been a burglary. "The house had been ransacked," the elderly B...

Judge Refuses To Reduce 14-Year Sentence For Disbarred Attorney Guilty Of Looting $1.7M+ In Clients' Escrow Funds; Laments Inability To Increase Term

Posted on July 11, 2009
In Central Florida, the St. Petersburg Times reports:Disbarred Clearwater lawyer Richard Da Fonte, who asked a judge to reconsider his 14-year sentence for stealing more than $1.7 million from clients, has been denied his request for shortened prison time...

Court Rules Against Bank In Attempt To Make Closing Attorney Pay For Fraud Committed By Woman Borrowing $180K Secured By Home Belonging To Another

Posted on July 11, 2009
In Wellington, New Zealand, The National Business Review reports:Westpac Bank has failed to persuade the Supreme Court to reverse a decision in lower courts that a solicitor should be liable for a mortgage fraud which cost it $180,000. The Supreme Court today dismissed an appeal by Westpac and ordered it to pay solicitor Alan John Clark $15,000 costs, plus "reasonable disbursements...

Tenants In Foreclosed Boarding House To Fight Off Eviction; Say New Law Prohibits Landlord From Giving Them The Boot

Posted on July 10, 2009
In Hyannis, Massachusetts, the Cape Cod Times reports:A group of tenants who received eviction notices last week at a local lodging house may be among the state's first to find protection under a federal foreclosure law signed this spring by President Barack Obama...

Detroit Feds Indict Five In Alleged Straw Buyer Scam Involving Fraudulent Short Sales Of Luxury Condos

Posted on July 10, 2009
In Detroit, Michigan, Crain's Detroit Business reports:Terrence Berg, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, announced the unsealing Wednesday afternoon of a felony complaint involving the fraudulent short-sale of luxury condominiums at the Harbortown development on the Detroit River...

Builder Cops Plea In Real Estate Investment Scam Allegedly Using Fraudulently Obtained Loans To Unload New Homes On Unwitting Out-Of-Town Investors

Posted on July 10, 2009
In Central Florida, the Ocala Star Banner reports:An Ocala home builder pleaded guilty to one count of organized scheme to defraud Monday for his role in a real estate scam in which dozens of members of Miami's Cuban community were duped into signing falsified loan documents toward purchasing new homes in Marion Oaks...

Loan Servicer Coughs Up $674K+ In Refunds After Allegedly Beating Baltimore Borrowers Out Of Improperly Imposed Prepayment Penalties

Posted on July 10, 2009
In Baltimore, Maryland, the Baltimore Business Journal reports:Ocwen Loan Servicing, one of the U.S.?s largest servicers of residential mortgage loans, has voluntarily refunded $674,137 to more than 180 Maryland borrowers after a state examination found violations of Maryland law restricting the imposition of prepayment penalties...

Lender's Refusal To Waive $9K Prepayment Penalty May Force SW Florida Couple Into Foreclosure

Posted on July 10, 2009
In Charlotte County, Florida, WINK News reports:A family is facing foreclosure, even though they're trying to pay off their mortgage. [...] A couple that has cut every expense to make their bills and keep their home may [lose] it even though they're paying on time...

Foreclosure Rescue, Loan Modification Scams Gain Increased Attention From FBI

Posted on July 10, 2009
The Washington Post reports:Nationwide, the number of mortgage fraud suspicious-activity reports referred to law enforcement increased 36 percent over 2007, the [according to the just released FBI's 2008 Mortgage Fraud Report]. And the government's economic stimulus programs could fuel further increases, according to the FBI [...

Arizona AG Files Suit In Alleged Straw Buyer Scheme Coupled With "No Qualifying" Rent To Own Program Leaving Investors, Tenants, Banks Holding The Bag

Posted on July 10, 2009
From the Office of the Arizona Attorney General:Attorney General Terry Goddard has filed a consumer fraud lawsuit against numerous Tucson real estate professionals and businesses(1) alleging a sophisticated, multi-million-dollar real estate fraud scheme...

Maine Regulators Issue Cease & Desist Orders To Fifteen Out-Of-State Loan Modification Firms Accused Of Pocketing Upfront Fees, Failing To Deliver

Posted on July 09, 2009
From the Maine Bureau of Consumer Credit Protection:State regulators [Tuesday] issued orders directing 15 separate foreclosure rescue companies to cease doing business with Maine consumers.(1) The companies, all located out of state, enticed consumers with radio, television and internet advertisements promising to help the consumers avoid foreclosure but then took the consumers? advance fees and

Schwarzenegger Squeezed By Lenders, Servicers To Demand Rule Prohibiting California Attorneys From Accepting Retainers For Loan Mod Negotiations???

Posted on July 09, 2009
A press release issued by three California consumer advocates(1) announces:The lending industry and loan servicing lobbyists have successfully pressured Governor Schwarzenegger to demand that language be included in SB 94 that would prohibit attorneys from accepting retainers for loan modification negotiations with their loan servicers...

Cleveland Housing Judge Continues Hammering Wells Fargo In Its Attempts To Dump Dilapidated Foreclosed Home Inventory

Posted on July 09, 2009
In Cleveland, Ohio, a recent op-ed column in the The Plain Dealer states:Cleveland Housing Court Judge Ray Pianka continues to impress with his proactive approach to fighting the foreclosure crisis. His decision last week to compel Wells Fargo Bank to post $1 million bond if it wants to rehab and sell distressed properties it owns in the city shows the kind of creative tactic required to protect

More On Lien Stripping Of Wholly Unsecured 2nd Mortgages Encumbering Underwater Homes In Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Proceedings

Posted on July 09, 2009
White Plains, New York bankruptcy attorney Jeffrey M. Binder writes the following in the Poughkeepsie Journal on lien stripping of "wholly unsecured" second mortgages on underwater homes(1) in Chapter 13 proceedings in Federal bankruptcy court:During the lien stripping process you are required to file a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy and it can only be filed if your property value is less than the balance

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