Sisters Odalis Freixa (left) and Marisela Gamez have been charged in an alleged Florida Ponzi caper. Photo source: Booking photos at Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation Department.
South Florida sisters Odalis Freixa and Marisela Gamez are listed as inmates held by the Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation Department on charges of grand theft, organized scheme to defraud and conspiracy.
Freixa is 48, according to jail records. Gamez is 49.
Citing Miami-Dade Police documents, NBCMiami is reporting that investigators believe the alleged scam was a Ponzi operated through foreclosure-rescue businesses.
Freixa is the alleged mastermind, the site reported.
From NBCMiami (italics added):
Police say Freixa, the mastermind of the scheme, conducted community outreach seminars and wrote a book titled “The American Dream It’s Not Forgotten” in order to educate consumers of the options homeowners have in dealing with foreclosures and loan modifications.
Edgar Rodgers And Diane Rowe: Source: Booking photos at Fulton County Jail.
Bond has been set at a combined $130,000 for a Georgia couple arrested Thursday by Atlanta police on charges they tried to sell homes that did not belong to them in an alleged paperwork scam involving bogus courthouse filings.
In recent years, Georgia has been near the top of the list in both bank failures and foreclosures. A number of scams have evolved, including “squatters” divining themselves a right to sell or move into homes that do not belong to them and foreclosure-rescue schemes in which foreclosure subjects are told they can remain in their homes by paying “rent” to purported third-party deed-holders who somehow whisked ownership rights away from banks.
Bond for Edgar Lee Rodgers was set at $85,000, according to the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office. Meanwhile, bond for Diane Rowe was set at $45,000. Both Rodgers and Rowe — purported “sovereign citizens” — are detained at the Fulton County Jail.
Rodgers has been charged with a single count of racketeering and five counts of theft by deception. His wife was charged with one count of racketeering and one count of theft by deception.
Here is how the Atlanta Journal Constitution put it in a story yesterday:
“Edgar Lee Rodgers and Diane Rowe are accused of filing false adverse possession documents — essentially claiming squatters’ rights — to homes that were vacant, likely due to foreclosure.”
Also see coverage at CBS Atlanta, which quoted Atlanta Police Sgt. Paul Cooper on the arrest of the couple.
Sample advertisement promising relief from foreclosure: Source: FTC
BULLETIN: A federal judge in the Central District of California has approved asset freezes and appointed a receiver in a case in which the FTC alleged several companies and a scammer-in-chief were running two mortgage-relief fraud schemes.
The scam, the FTC said, traded on an image of President Obama and used at least three .org sites to separate homeowners who already were financially strapped from even more money.
Named defendants were Sameer Lakhany of Santa Ana, Calif.; The Credit Shop LLC of Orange, Calif.; Fidelity Legal Services LLC of Orange, Calif.; Titanium Realty Inc. of Anaheim, Calif.; Precision Law Center Inc. of South Coast Metro, Calif.; and Precision Law Center LLC, also of South Coast Metro.
Lakhany also controlled three .orgs from which the scam was carried out, the FTC said: FreeFedLoanMod.org, HouseHoldRelief.org and MyHomeSupport.org.
In stunning allegations of relentless fraud aimed at vulnerable Americans, the FTC said Lakhany and his business entities authored a con “that falsely promised to get help for homeowners who joined others to file so-called ‘mass joinder’ lawsuits against their lenders.”
As part of the mass-joinder fraud, the scammers charged “$6,000 to $10,000 in advance, but failed to get the results they promised,” the agency alleged.
In the second fraud, the hucksters “promised but failed to deliver relief from . . . mortgages and foreclosures,” even after charging customers “between $795 to $1595 each for a so-called ‘forensic loan audit.’”
The defendants, according to the FTC, “told consumers these audits would find lender violations 90 percent of the time or more, and that the resulting legal leverage would force their lender to give them a loan modification that would substantially improve their mortgage terms. The defendants falsely portrayed themselves as non-profit, free, accredited, or HUD-certified housing counselors with special qualifications to help obtain mortgage loan modifications and avoid foreclosure.
“They promised consumers that the forensic loan audit would be the only charge not covered by their ‘free’ service, and that if the ‘audit’ did not turn up any violations, consumers could get a 70 percent refund and still obtain a loan modification. They also told consumers their loan modification requests would be seriously delayed without the audit,” the FTC charged.
The scams traded in part on an image of President Obama, the FTC said.
One ad featuring an Obama image urged consumers to call a toll-free number to “Speak With a Counselor and Receive a FREE Loan Modification Under the Obama Loan Modification Programs,” the FTC said.
Using various misrepresentations, the scammers targeting vulnerable Americans took in more than $1 million, the FTC said.
The addresses of Credit Shop LLC and Fidelity Legal Services LLC were mail drops, the FTC said.
Jacob Franz Dyck: Source: Polk County Sheriff's Office
Jacob Franz Dyck, a purported Florida “sovereign citizen,” is wanted on a felony arrest warrant for “Criminal Act Under Color Of Law Or Committing Criminal Acts Through Simulated Use Of The Legal Process,” the Polk County Sheriff’s Office said.
Dyck, 72, has been the subject of considerable reporting by the St. Petersburg Times. See story about Dyck’s alleged filing of “wild deeds” to cloud property titles here. See story here about a missing pickup truck that led to the issuance of the arrest warrant.
Three of Dyck’s associates, including a notary public, have landed in jail, the Times reports.
See August 2011 PP Blog story on an FBI report that asserts there is a “continued effort by Sovereign Citizen domestic extremists throughout the United States to perpetrate and train others in the use of debt elimination schemes.”
See July 2011 PP Blog report on a 25-year prison sentence handed down to Jeff McGrue, a Washington state man who targeted people “at the end of their rope” in a foreclosure-rescue scam.
See August 2011 PP Blog report about disciplinary actions against notaries public associated with AdSurfDaily figure Kenneth Wayne Leaming.
Leaming is a purported sovereign citizen whom records show once filed an involuntary bankruptcy petition against the Washington State Bar Association and a community hospital in Washington state.
