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Tag: foreclosure scams

  • Husband And Wife (And Purported ‘Sovereign Citizens’) Jailed In Georgia; Edgar Lee Rodgers And Diane Rowe Charged With Racketeering Amid Allegations They Tried To Sell Homes That Did Not Belong To Them

    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.

    View video report at WXIA (11Alive).

  • ‘SOVEREIGN’ UPDATES: (1) Tennessee Man Indicted In Alleged ‘Quit Claim’ Deeds Scam; (2) Virginia Man Facing Trial On Gun Charge Allegedly Had Driver’s License From ‘Kingdom Of Heaven’; (3) Texas Man Allegedly Told Cops To Bring ‘Body Bags’

    EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a links post presented in the form of briefs.

    Three significant stories about purported “sovereign citizens” — all from different areas of the United States — have been published and/or broadcast in recent days. The venues include Tennessee, Virginia and Texas.

    1.) WMC TV is reporting that Devitoe Farmer, 44, of Memphis, has been indicted on federal charges of filing bogus “quit claim” deeds against foreclosure properties — in effect, to cloud their titles and take control of real estate without paying for it.

    Farmer also faces state-level charges.

    Read WMC TV story originally filed in March 2011 and updated last week. (There is an accompanying video report.)

    2.) Randy Linamen, 60, of Manassas, Va., faces trial this week on charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm and driving while his license was revoked, Northern Virginia Daily reports.

    Linamen’s case started with a traffic stop by police last year. When approached by officers, Linamen allegedly produced a document that purported to be a driver’s license from the “Kingdom of Heaven,” NVDaily reports.

    Read story.

    3.) John Joe Gray, accused nearly 12 years ago of assaulting a Texas state trooper, has avoided a court date since the alleged incident unfolded, USA Today reports.

    Local authorities have feared a violent confrontation with Gray for years, the newspaper reports.

    Gray had told an investigator that, if law-enforcement officers came for him, they’d better bring “body bags,” USA Today reports.

    The stalemate is “perhaps the longest-running standoff in the U.S. between law enforcement and a fugitive living in plain sight,” the newspaper reports.

    Read the story in USA Today.

  • FBI: ‘Sovereign Citizen Domestic Extremists Throughout The United States’ Are Perpetrating Mortgage Fraud And ‘Debt Elimination Schemes’ And ‘Coaching’ Others To Do So

    Is your purported debt coach or foreclosure-relief expert a “sovereign citizen” with an avowed contempt for the U.S. government and banking in general? Is he (or she) actually trying to recruit you into a criminal scheme that only will add to your stress? Is your last disposable dollar going into the pockets of a domestic extremist posing as a patriotic problem-solver and putting you in the position of having to explain incomprehensible legal filings to a judge?

    A new report by the FBI “indicates a continued effort by Sovereign Citizen domestic extremists throughout the United States to perpetrate and train others in the use of debt elimination schemes,” the agency said.

    “Victims pay advance fees to perpetrators espousing themselves as ‘sovereign citizens’ or ‘tax deniers’ who promise to train them in methods to reduce or eliminate their debts,” the agency said.

    “While they also target credit card debt, they are primarily targeting mortgages and commercial loans, unsecured debts, and automobile loans,” the FBI said. “They are involved in coaching people on how to file fraudulent liens, proof of claim, entitlement orders, and other documents to prevent foreclosure and forfeiture of property.”

    The finding is included in a 29-page report on mortgage fraud released this month. Sovereign citizens, though, are hardly the only force driving the fraud, according to the report.

    “Mortgage fraud enables perpetrators to earn high profits through illicit activity that poses a relative low risk for discovery,” the FBI said. “Mortgage fraud perpetrators include licensed/registered and non-licensed/registered mortgage brokers, lenders, appraisers, underwriters, accountants, real estate agents, settlement attorneys, land developers, investors, builders, bank account representatives, and trust account representatives.

    “There have been numerous instances in which various organized criminal groups were involved in mortgage fraud activity,” the FBI said. “Asian, Balkan, Armenian, La Cosa Nostra, Russian, and Eurasian organized crime groups have been linked to various mortgage fraud schemes, such as short sale fraud and loan origination schemes,” the FBI said.

    Read the full FBI report.

  • Washington State Man Sentenced To 25 Years In ‘Foreclosure Relief’ Scam; Judge Calls Jeff McGrue ‘Heartless’; FBI Says He Issued Nonexistent ‘Bonded Promissory Notes’ Purportedly Drawn On U.S. Treasury To Fleece Lenders And People ‘At The End Of Their Rope’

    Photo source: FBI

    A Washington state man who ran a foreclosure-rescue scam by telling victims he could save their homes gathered more than $1 million from people “at the end of their rope” and tried to bilk lenders out of at least $55 million, federal prosecutors and the FBI said.

    Jeff McGrue, 51, of Tacoma, targeted California borrowers. He has been sentenced to 25 years in federal prison.

    U.S. District Judge Otis D. Wright III called McGrue “heartless” when ordering the sentence, prosecutors said.

    Documents in the case suggest McGrue fashioned a purported remedy for distressed homeowners that mixed redemption fraud with standard hucksterism. As is typical in foreclosure-rescue schemes, McGrue got paid up front, and his customers lost everything.

    Redemption fraud normally is associated with tax fraud and efforts to gain illegal tax refunds, often for spectacular sums. Under the crackpot redemption theory, the U.S. government maintains secret accounts for individual citizens that can be tapped to retire tax debt and other forms of debt.

    In his scam, McGrue appears to have borrowed from the redemption theory and applied its bizarre conjecture to mortgage debt relief.

    Through a company known as Gateway International, McGrue and “others falsely told homeowners that, if they paid an enrollment fee and monthly rent and signed over title of their homes to Gateway, McGrue would use ‘bonded promissory notes purportedly drawn on a U.S. Treasury Department account to pay off their mortgages, thereby stopping foreclosure proceedings,” the FBI said.

    “The homeowners were falsely told that lenders were legally required to accept the notes, that they would be able to buy their homes back from Gateway International at a discount, and that they would receive up to $25,000, even if they chose not to re-purchase their houses,” the agency said.

    But McGrue “did not own any bonds and did not have a U.S. Treasury Department account,” the FBI said. “Nor could he have the type of account described to homeowners because the Treasury Department does not maintain accounts that can be used to make payments to third parties.”

    More than 250 customers enrolled in the McGrue plan, but he “did not save a single home,” prosecutors in the Central District of California said.

    Real-estate agents who did not do their homework but nevertheless were eager to earn commissions helped popularize the foreclosure-relief scheme, according to the government.

    Strange, foreclosure-related events are occurring across the United States. In the Atlanta area, for example, so-called “sovereign citizens” have been moving into foreclosed homes and issuing fake quit-claim deeds designed in theory to undermine lenders’ interests in properties.

     

  • KABOOM! (Florida — Again): FTC Hits Bogus Credit-Repair Firm With $14 Million Judgment; Alleged Schemers Lose Cars, Real Estate In Miami-Dade, Broward Counties

    BULLETIN: (UPDATED 11:27 A.M. EDT (U.S.A.) The Federal Trade Commission has lowered the boom on Clean Credit Report Services Inc. of Florida and three individuals associated with the firm.

    In a settlement from a case brought in October 2008, the FTC has obtained a judgment of $14.4 million. The defendants must surrender their assets, including about $165,000 in frozen funds.

    The settlement agreement also includes “any proceeds received from selling their six commercial and three residential properties under foreclosure in Florida; commercial property in Bogota, Colombia; a 1992 Mercedes S300; and a 1997 Chevrolet Venture.”

    In total, Clean Credit Report Services Inc., Ricardo A. Miranda, Ruthy Villabona and Daniel R. Miranda are giving up “two cars, three houses, and six commercial properties in Broward and Miami-Dade counties in Florida, and in Bogota, Colombia,” the FTC said.

    The defendants admitted no wrongdoing.

    Clean Credit Report operated from North Miami, according to court filings. The company used a website (now defunct), radio ads and televisions ads to fleece customers, the FTC charged.

    Here is how the company pitched its offer on its website, according to the FTC:

    “DEROGATORY ACCOUNTS ARE DISPUTED CCRS will help you to legally dispute all your negative remarks directly with the 3 credit reporting agencies.”

    ***

    “Get ready to see DELETED, DELETED, DELETED, DELETED, DELETED, on the responses from the credit reporting agencies.”

    The alleged schemers targeted people going through rough financial times and illegally charged them upfront fees, the FTC charged.

    They also fraudulently claimed that they could remove accurate and timely information from credit reports, charging $400 to do so and debiting the amount from customers’ bank accounts, the FTC said.

    The agency noted in court filings that eight of nine properties the defendants will be giving up already are in foreclosure.

    Florida has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the United States. Certain MLM and Internet Marketing companies — in efforts to recruit financially strapped customers — routinely use the word “foreclosure” in sales pitches, positioning the business “opportunity” as the remedy for the foreclosure problem.

    Such ads often feature a dire drum beat, as images of people down on their luck flash on the screen. Biz Ad Splash, a failed autosurf, used such an ad. The company disappeared with an unknown amount of money sent in by members earlier this year — and then issued an announcement that it was “sad” about the development.

    Biz Ad Splash and it dire drum beat and “foreclosure” message targeted members of Florida-based AdSurfDaily, which was implicated in a Ponzi scheme by the U.S. Secret Service in August 2008. More than $80 million was seized in the ASD case.

    Some ASD members now are recommending a Florida-based program called MPB Today, which also uses a dire drum beat and the word “foreclosure” in its sales pitch.

    It is known that some members of ASD also were in the credit-repair business. One ASD supporter claimed in court filings that he could undermine a bank’s interest in a foreclosure case by filing “twenty-one dollars in silver coinage” at a courthouse in Missouri.