Mortgage fraud is a most despicable crime. Scammers attempts to get away these types of crimes not only eats away at home owners’ equity and/or depletes lenders’ funds (as well as their investors’ money), it forces the public to pay for extensive investigations, trials and prison expenses. Sometimes, however, some crimes appear to be intriguing, not because of the crime per se, but because you want to get inside the scammer’s mind to understand their motives as portrayed by their blatant behaviors and flamboyant lifestyles. From the case files (otherwise known as press releases) of Rod J. Rosenstein, United States Attorney for the District of Maryland, the Metropolitan Money Store Case would appear to make a great follow up to Oliver Stone’s “Wall Street.”
If not for the fact the events in the case actually occurred, you might think that you might be reading the latest crime novel about the mortgage meltdown. However, seeming to be one of the most intriguing cases prosecuted this year, the Metropolitan Money Store case defrauded home owners and mortgage lenders for over $37million by asserting to offer foreclosure assistance and credit repair to home owners. The story ends with the president and the CEO recent sentencing to prison time after an extensive investigation that netted ten defendants that included an attorney, real estate agent, mortgage broker, mortgage processor, among others.
According to the press release of the US Attorney’s Office, the president of the Money Store was “Personally responsible for over $16 Million in losses to mortgage Lenders…” Additionally, U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein was quoted to say, “Joy Jackson presided over a ‘money store’ that was in the business of ripping off homeowners and mortgage lenders by submitting fraudulent paperwork to support over $37 million of loans that were never intended to be repaid”…”Instead of helping financially distressed homeowners keep their homes as promised, she secretly used the home equity to buy luxuries for herself, including furs, jewelry and over $800,000 on her wedding.”
Something like a modern day “Tin Men,” home owners (who were behind in their mortgages or in foreclosure) were directed to sign title over to third parties who acted as straw buyers to strip the equity form the homes under the guise that the money taken would bring the home owners current on their mortgages and rebuild their credit. Additional financial and investment groups were also added to expand the the conspirator’s foreclosure “consulting and credit services.” The equity proceeds were used for goods and services for the president and CEO of the Metropolitan Money Store including art, cars, clothing, credit card bills, homes, fur coats, furniture, airline trips, gambling expenses, jewelry, limousine services, student tuition and a luxury wedding. The conspiracy described in the US Attorney’s press releases (for individual defendants) would make Mickey Spillane jealous of not conceiving such a plot.
The good news is that the conspirators in this case were brought to justice, like other mortgage fraud cases, with prison time. Unfortunately, the bad news is that consumers continue to be deceived and defrauded by con artists, even though government warnings and public service announcements alert the public to be cautious of foreclosure rescue scams.
Original published at https://dankrell.com/blog
By Dan Krell
This article is not intended to provide nor should it be relied upon for legal and financial advice. Permission to use this article is by written consent only. Copyright © 2010 Dan Krell