Foreclosures, Timothy Kingcade Posts

National Foreclosure Scam Results in 11 Indictments

Eleven people involved in a national foreclosure scam were indicted this week by a federal grand jury in connection with a scheme to defraud homeowners desperate to save their homes. These 11 people come from five different states in connection with the scam. They stand accused of making promises to homeowners that they would negotiate with their mortgage lenders to protect them from losing their homes in foreclosure but never did anything on behalf of the homeowners after money was paid.  This is a common scam we have seen so many times before.

The formal indictment listed MVP Home Solutions, also known as “Stay In or Walk Away,” Bolden Pinnacle Group Corp, also known as “Home Advisory Services Network” and “Home Advisory Services Group,” and Silverstein & Wolf Corp, as parties to this legal matter.

What these parties are accused of doing is using multilevel marketing schemes for recruiting homeowners facing foreclosure. The companies encouraged their employees to be aggressive in pushing homeowners to get on board with the program. They would search court records and online databases to find people who they know were facing foreclosure and were vulnerable and desperate to do whatever necessary to stay in their homes. The individuals targeted were living in states where foreclosure rates were particularly high- including Florida.

The reports show some examples of how persistent these companies were at recruiting homeowners to cooperate with them. In southern Ohio, more than 22,000 postcards were mailed to homeowners, indicating that the company could stop the foreclosure from proceeding or could stop a sheriff sale if the homeowner paid a fixed fee to the company first. In addition, these companies made promises that they could also negotiate the release of mortgage loans for a deed in lieu of foreclosure sale or a short sale or could stop a foreclosure sale from proceeding. They also made statements that, for a fixed fee, the company could achieve the short sale price at a fraction of what the homeowner owed on the mortgage.

Once the victim of the scam paid the upfront fee, there was never any negotiation done on their behalf.  It was a typical “take the money and run” scheme, and the homeowner wound up not only losing their home but additional money in the process that they paid to the company.

The released indictment included charges involving conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud, four counts of mail fraud, seven counts of wire fraud, one county of bank fraud, 12 counts of bankruptcy fraud, and even one count of aggravated identity theft.

So far, eight of the 11 individuals listed in the indictment have been arrested in Ohio, Virginia, New Jersey, and New York. Three others named in the indictment, including a Rafiq Bashir from Jacksonville, FL, have not yet been arrested.

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Choosing the right attorney can make the difference between whether or not you can keep your home. A well-qualified Miami foreclosure defense attorney will not only help you keep your home, but they will be able to negotiate a loan that has payments you can afford. Miami foreclosure defense attorney Timothy Kingcade has helped many facing foreclosure alleviate their stress by letting them stay in their homes for at least another year, allowing them to re-organize their lives. If you have any questions on the topic of foreclosure please feel free to contact me at (305) 285-9100. You can also find useful consumer information on the Kingcade Garcia McMaken website at www.miamibankruptcy.com.

 

Foreclosures

Foreclosure Rescue Scam Targets Hispanic Homeowners in Florida

A Florida law firm has been accused of running a predatory loan scheme, specifically targeting Hispanic homeowners struggling to pay their mortgage.

A lawsuit was filed last week by the Department of Justice, naming the Advocate Law Groups of Florida, Jon Lindeman and Ephigenia Lindeman as parties accused of violating the Fair Housing Act (FHA). The lawsuit states that the Lindemans violated the FHA by intentionally discriminating against Hispanic homeowners through a predatory mortgage loan modification and foreclosure rescue services scheme, which the lawsuit states ran between 2009 and 2015.

Over the course of these six years, the firm and the Lindemans are accused of using Spanish-language advertisements to target Hispanic homeowners, claiming that the firm could cut their mortgage payments in half. If a Hispanic individual followed up on these advertisements and came in for a consultation, the firm is accused of then promising to lower their mortgage payments in exchange for payment of upfront fees, which could be in the thousands of dollars, in addition to monthly fees.

Once the Hispanic clients made these payments, the firm told them to stop making their monthly mortgage payments and to cease communications with their mortgage lenders. The firm would also follow-up with a packet of documents the borrowers needed to read to understand the process, but these documents were written in English only, with no translation. The borrowers were told that these documents were sent to their bank on their behalf, and they contained statements that included an offer to the bank to return the homeowner’s residence in exchange for a rescission or cancellation of the mortgage without the borrower’s consent.  This resulted in many of their clients losing their homes to foreclosure.

These clients who paid high retainers and fees to the firm, in exchange the law firm did very little on their behalf to get loan modifications or reduce their monthly mortgage payments.

It was not until three former clients of the firm filed complaints with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). HUD investigated the matter and then referred the issue to the DOJ.

The clients allege that they were targeted specifically because of their ethnic backgrounds then taken advantage of because of their lack of understanding of the English language. Had they understood the documents, they claim they would not have lost their homes and gone through the immense stress that followed with this scheme.

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Choosing the right attorney can make the difference between whether or not you can keep your home. A well-qualified Miami foreclosure defense attorney will not only help you keep your home, but they will be able to negotiate a loan that has payments you can afford. Miami foreclosure defense attorney Timothy Kingcade has helped many facing foreclosure alleviate their stress by letting them stay in their homes for at least another year, allowing them to re-organize their lives. If you have any questions on the topic of foreclosure, please feel free to contact me at (305) 285-9100. You can also find useful consumer information on the Kingcade Garcia McMaken website at www.miamibankruptcy.com.

Foreclosures, Timothy Kingcade Posts

The “Mastermind” Behind a Foreclosure Rescue Scam has been Indicted by Feds

Michael “Mickey” Henschel, accused of leading a foreclosure-avoidance scam that preyed on struggling borrowers, has been arrested and charged with 11 counts related to the scam that made him $7 million.  According to the indictment, Henschel owned a Van Nuys-based company that operated under several different names (including Valueline), and illegally marketed foreclosure and eviction-delay services to homeowners in default on their mortgages and renters facing eviction.

As part of the scam, Henschel and his co-conspirators allegedly convinced homeowners to sign fake grant deeds that supposedly showed that the homeowners conveyed an interest in their properties to fictional third parties. Henschel then allegedly filed bankruptcies in the names of fake people to activate the automatic stay provision of the Bankruptcy Code that stops a foreclosure sale.

Henshel charged large fees before agreeing to clear the title to the properties, in addition to the monthly fees paid for the illegal services. During the course of the scam, which ran from October 2010 through July 2013, Henschel and his co-conspirators allegedly collected more than $7 million for the illegal services.

Henschel has been charged with one count of conspiracy, eight counts of bankruptcy fraud and two counts of wire fraud.  If convicted, he would serve a statutory maximum sentence of five years in federal prison for each of the conspiracy and bankruptcy fraud counts, while the two wire fraud counts carry a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years.

Click here to read more on this story.

Choosing the right attorney can make the difference between whether or not you can keep your home. A well-qualified Miami foreclosure defense attorney will not only help you keep your home, but they will be able to negotiate a loan that has payments you can afford. Miami foreclosure defense attorney Timothy Kingcade has helped many facing foreclosure alleviate their stress by letting them stay in their homes for at least another year, allowing them to re-organize their lives. If you have any questions on the topic of foreclosure please feel free to contact me at (305) 285-9100. You can also find useful consumer information on the Kingcade & Garcia website at www.miamibankruptcy.com.