It's an attractive proposition for homeowners facing foreclosure: For a certain fee, they can keep their home and have their mortgage payments reduced or even eliminated altogether.
Prosecutors said the statement, which ironically arrived in the mail shortly after the bank sent the first foreclosure notice, was a forgery. It's all part of a nationwide marketing program aimed at "vulnerable, financially challenged and desperate homeowners."
Laurin Cal Buckner, 66, of Hamilton, Ohio, and Dessaline Seely, 59, of Brooklyn, two key members of the ring behind the scam, were convicted by a Cincinnati federal jury last week of robbing nearly 800 people. . . money within your country and seriously harm your efforts to avoid future bankruptcy.
Two other men, Joel Harvey, 40, and Garrett Stevenson, 45, both of Cincinnati, pleaded guilty during the trial. 9 other defendants were also charged in the case.
"The defendants took advantage of people's financial desperation and emotional vulnerability to line their own pockets," said Kenneth Parker, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio.
Buckner and Seeley, who are representing themselves in court, did not respond to messages seeking comment. Harvey's attorneys had no comment, and Stevenson's attorneys did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
Prosecutors said the group ran the business from 2013 until it was indicted in 2019 for a multi-level marketing scheme that asked salespeople to help lure struggling homeowners in exchange for a commission. The program has operated under various names such as MVP Home Solutions, Stay In or Walk Away, Bolden Pinnacle Group, Home Advisory Services Network, Home Advisory Services Group and Silverstein & Wolf Corp.
According to court documents, the group found their targets by searching court records for forfeiture documents. The defendants are accused of sending postcards or e-mails to aggrieved homeowners asking them to solve their financial problems. In the scam, prosecutors said, the group sent tens of thousands of postcards advertising programs to "stop foreclosures" or "stop sheriff's sales" in exchange for sums of money.
The prosecution said the email created a "false sense of urgency" and that it was the third or final notification despite the fact that it was the first message the recipient received.
If the homeowner contacts the group, the seller will give them a hard line and say the homeowner can stop their mortgage payments if they sign up for a program that claims they have a team of attorneys to negotiate with the bank for a full buyout. needed.
Eventually, the scammers promised homeowners that their mortgage payments would be reduced or canceled altogether, prosecutors said. But the group never took any real steps to help the owner.
"These programs are scams. The defendant did little or nothing on the owner's behalf with the owner's creditors, never received the owner's promissory notes, and never gave them a new, cheaper mortgage, prosecutors wrote in court documents.
After all, the group often files for Chapter 13 bankruptcy on behalf of homeowners to help stop foreclosure proceedings, which defendants call "fake bombs" in reference to the movement of basketballs. , according to court documents. or soccer, where the player kicks or throws the ball to get a reaction from the defender.
In recent times, bankruptcy courts have routinely denied claims due to missing important information, causing serious problems for many homeowners.
"In some cases, this prevented the owner from filing further bankruptcy," prosecutors said in the lawsuit.