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Mortgage Fraud- Alive and Well in South Florida- Homeowners Beware!

Mortgage Fraud updates- They just keep reeling them in don't they! I believe in Karma and what you do onto others is going to come back to bite you. The FBI and the Florida Attorney General are hot on the trail for mortgage fraud criminals and there are plenty of them to be hunted down here in Florida.

We even had a mortgage broker who was arrested and is in jail now call us to tell me to take down the post that I wrote about his arrest because he was innocent. I told him I would happy to tell his side of the story, he never did showed up for the call. Then we received an email from one of his victims thanking us for writing the story and told us more of who his victims were.

It seems like nearly every day you can read on the internet or in the paper that somewhere in Florida more people were just arrested for mortgage fraud.

Here is another story we wrote about mortgage fraud arrests by the FBI regarding one of our nicest luxury communities here in Wellington Florida.

This time the Secret Service arrested the owners of a Tampa Florida company, 4 Solutions in Peru! The owners had fled to Peru about 2 years ago.

These mortgage fraud creeps have been on the International Most Wanted List! Well, if they were looking for notoriety, they got their name up in the lights now, didn't they! The US government is trying to extradite them back to the US to prosecute them for wire fraud, conspiracy, mail fraud and money laundering.

They carried out a very intricate scheme targeting mostly Hispanic homeowners in the Tampa, Orlando and South Florida areas. Their criminal activity included using the radio, television and the internet promising homeowners they can avoid foreclosure. Their victims thought that they were getting their homes refinanced or that they were signing over their deeds to their properties temporarily. The company in many cases told the homeowners that they would make the payments in behalf of the homeowners, that they would not lose their homes and that they would stop the foreclosures.

But what they really did was take the titles to the properties and sell those houses to a tune of a total of $8 million dollars. Their homes were being sold to straw buyers. The company was supposed to make the payments and give the investors money for using their credit.

The company put the homes in the names of other people, took out large mortgages stripping the homes of any equity. Then the company stopped making the mortgage payments and the home went into foreclosure.

There are as many as 1,500 victims of this company's fraud according to Bettina Rodriguez Aguilera who is the Florida director of the League of Latin American Citizens. She said that some of these victims had heart attacks because they could not take what they discovered happened to them, others got divorced over this and still others got sick.

The straw buyers also were messed up in this scheme. For most of them, their credit was ruined and some fo them ended up owning like eight homes while the company's owners took the money are ran off with it. Some of the straw buyers really believed they were helping the homeowners stay in their homes and many had no idea that the homeowner did not know that the straw buyers were involved. Some of them had to sell all their furniture and cars and then file bankruptcy.

I used to tell my children when they were teenagers that they really need to think about who and how many people will be affected by just one of their decisions. Sometimes in selfish moments we make decisions thinking they will only affect us when that is not the case. One move creates a ripple affect that will run through the entire family and community.

If you are in foreclosure, if you can not make your payments, if you are trying to get a loan modification, please be very careful who you get advice from.

Do not give the title to your property away to anyone. The only time you should sign the deed over to your property is at the closing of a sale of your home. Here is the story of how this was attempted on one of our sellers.

Please read this article about how the loan modification scams work and be aware of anyone who tells you they promise or guarantee you will get your loan modified. There is no way anyone can guarantee the outcome of your request to modify your loan.

You may be able to sell your house as a short sale and perhaps avoid foreclosure. Call Nestor Gasset or Katerina Gasset today at 561-753-0135 for a confidential phone interview to go over your options. We may be able to help you sell your home as a short sale. Find out more about Florida short sales on our website.

T o view Florida Short Sales- Click here . We know Palm Beach County Short Sales and Port St Lucie Florida Short Sales and will help you get your home Sold if you need to Sell your home and help you buy your home in Palm Beach County Florida : Call us today.

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Mortgage Fraud- Alive and Well in South Florida- Homeowners Beware! -was first published on South- Florida-Luxury-Living.com.

Posted by Nestor & Katerina Gasset Realtors® Wellington Florida Luxury Homes on 10/10/2009 02:00 AM

Comments (19)

Mortgage Fraud and Forclosures in the ActiveRain Channel

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Originally posted at: South Florida Real Estate and...: Mortgage Fraud- Alive and Well in South Florida- Homeowners Beware!

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19 Comments on Mortgage Fraud- Alive and Well in South Florida- Homeowners Beware!

OCT

Katrina,

That was great advice you gave your then teenage kids - everything we do has a ripple effect...sort of like the butterfly flapping their wings in the rain forest causing a typhoon across the world...everything and everyone is connected.

That's the way God planned it.

Thanks for this post highlighting all the nasty things that continue to go on...

John

I know where the phrase "Taking Candy From a Baby" Comes from now. . Hispanic families are being taken first by the sub-prime banks and now by these jackals.

Greed always plays a big part in most large scale scams. The exception to that may be the loan modification scams now sweeping the country. The victims are not driven by greed but fear and dispair. Now maybe there was a little greed that got them over extended in the first place, but a lot of these cases are just bad circumstances (lay offs and the like).

I read this post the other day (http://activerain.com/blogsview/1273340/when-one-door-closes-another-opens-and-not-always-a-good-one-) by Holly Kirby Weatherwax. She said that it is possible, even likely, that the elderly will be the next victims as the Reverse Mortgage jackals (my word, not hers) realize that there is another huge as-yet-untapped source of potential!

Katerina - Mortgage fraud also occurs in Canada. In November, the Canadian Association of Accredited Mortgage Professionals will be holding their second annual national mortgage fraud summit in Toronto. It's a very valuable event for those in the mortgage industry and real estate industry to learn from professionals who see fraud from many angles.

Thanks for the informative and important post. The more aware we are of what the scamming @#$#%@ are doing the better equipped we are to help our customers not to become another victum.

Katerina,

It is such a shame that people in professional positions can be so corrupt. It is best to get a reputable mortgage professional from a referral and do your homework- Google is a great research tool- before working with a mortgage company.

I remember your post about the loan officer who was arrested and his no show for the interview.

Fernando- The saddest thing about the Hispanic community here is that most of them did not buy their houses out of greed and to flip them. Of course you know about the Hispanic culture. Living here in a very Hispanic culture and I love learning about different cultures and traveled most of the world learning wherever I went about the customs of other people everywhere, the differences, the stereotypes and the foods:) But here most Hispanic bought homes with subprime mortgages because they work under the table, they are self employed or they are foreign nationals. People escaping from Cuba and Venezuela don't trust banks easily and therefore keep their money, "under the mattress". So the stated income loan was a great program and many had money to put down. In our Hispanic culture here in South Florida- it is a pride issue about your home. Your home is your castle, not a commodity. You keep your home no matter what! So very seldom do Hispanic people do short sales because they don't want to give up their home- they try to get loan modifications or refinance. That is when the scum bucket vultures who know this, like in this case, it was other Hispanic people that screwed their own people. Disgusting to me to take advantage of people who's sole purpose to reach out for help is to keep their home. Katerina

Marc- That surprises me that you have mortgage fraud in Canada as tight as Canada is on lending. I learned alot about Canadian mortgages and real estate closings from Fred Carver who is one of my coaching clients. But then again, it goes to prove, you can not legislate morality and the good and evil in people.

Rebecca- Thanks for stopping by. I have been so swamped, I am reading your posts, but can not always write a comment. I love your posts BTW! I am glad you remembered that creep who screamed his innocence ( which I always have believed you are innocent until proven guilty) but never showed up to tell his innocent story. But then I did a follow up story on his case after he was in jail, and his victims found my blog and emailed me how my posts helped them to heal because it made them feel someone cared about what happened to them. One was a renter who was evicted after he stole all her money. SHe was a single parent. She was homeless after they foreclosed on her house after she gave him her first, last and security deposits- when she went to the authorities - he threatened to kill her! It was a scary story. Katerina

Katerina, back when working for Big Mortgage Bank we'd receive classes on recognizing straw buyers and how to spot such schemes in transactions. The schemes were always so intricate I could never wrap my head around them. Seemed to me it was much simpler to do the right thing. Anyway my manager would laugh at me and say it was a good thing that I didn't get it.

Sadly these days there is so much desperation, one can't help but get it. Signing over title does not relieve a homeowner of mortgage obligation. Kate

Dave- I agree with you mostly. Yes, greed of buyers buying 5 and 6 homes here in order to flip them and those who just wanted to live in a million dollar mansion for less than rental on a modest place- yes, I don't feel sorry for them. Of course, 2 wrongs don't make a right.

But in this situation- you can read my comment back to Fernando. The Hispanic culture was largely not a part of that segment of greedy buyers. They were so thrilled to be able to make homes for their families. Most of them are in trouble now not because of buying a home they could not afford but rather of getting laid off at work, people cutting back on the services for their homes especially in our construction industry here, it has taken a big toll of the Hispanic community. Of course it has not affected our Spanish, Argentinian, Brazilian Polo industry here- that is still going strong.

Kate- I think that is the biggest point we need to get across to people. Signing over Title does NOT relieve you of your mortgage obligation. Many times in divorces- one spouse quit claims the deed to the other- but if they are both on the note- they are still both responsible. Katerina

John- Thanks for stopping by! The ripple effect is something most people don't think about because they only live in their own world without regard to another's world. Katerina

Hi Katerina: wow that is one big scheme they had going - 1500 people - amazing.

Kari- I wish I had the funds to make commercials to air right after those fake, "made to look like a white house statement" commercials that I just cringe thinking about all the people who are going to pick up the phone and call that stupid 800 # to get scammed- to warn people not to take the bait.

Leslie- I believe it. Reverse mortgages are the next big scam if they are not set up correctly.

Matt- Yep, it just keeps getting worse too. They are hot on the trail of a lot of of these creeps.

Katerina --- wow!!! --- I know there is a lot of this mortgage fraud going on, but this is a huge mess -- 1500 victims of this one scheme ---good advice for the teenagers.

Mama Liz

Liz- Thanks! Yes, it just keeps going deeper too. Imagine that, 1500 victims and the crooks escape with 8 million dollars!

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