Fraud Scheme: Multi-Million-Dollar Scheme to Deceive Homeowners in New York

FraudsWatch.com
Fraud Scheme Multi-Million-Dollar Scheme

<h2 id&equals;"parent-fieldname-title" class&equals;"documentFirstHeading">Three Individuals Charged in Manhattan Federal Court in Multi-Million-Dollar Scheme to Deceive Homeowners into Selling Their Homes<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>Preet Bharara&comma; the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York&comma; Diego Rodriguez&comma; Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation &lpar;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;FBI”&rpar;&comma; Christy Goldsmith Romero&comma; Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program &lpar;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;SIGTARP”&rpar;&comma; and Shirin Emami&comma; Acting Superintendent of Financial Services for the New York State Department of Financial Services &lpar;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;DFS”&rpar;&comma; announced that SAMANTHA BOUBERT&comma; CHRISTINE MAHARAJ&comma; and OWEN REID were taken into custody this week for participating in a scheme to fraudulently induce distressed homeowners to sell their homes to a company associated with the defendants&period; BOUBERT was presented this afternoon in Manhattan federal court before U&period;S&period; Magistrate Judge Henry Pitman&period; MAHARAJ and REID were presented yesterday afternoon in Manhattan federal court&comma; also before U&period;S&period; Magistrate Judge Henry Pitman&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;15811" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-15811" style&equals;"width&colon; 336px" class&equals;"wp-caption alignright"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;fraudswatch&period;com&sol;fraud-scheme-multi-million-dollar-scheme-2&sol;" rel&equals;"attachment wp-att-15811"><img class&equals;"wp-image-15811" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;fraudswatch&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;12&sol;Fraud-Scheme-Multi-Million-Dollar-Scheme-1-1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Multi-Million-Dollar Scheme" width&equals;"336" height&equals;"252" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-15811" class&equals;"wp-caption-text"><em><strong>Fraud Scheme Multi-Million-Dollar Scheme<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Manhattan U&period;S&period; Attorney Preet Bharara said&colon; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;As alleged&comma; these defendants preyed upon distressed homeowners and&comma; through lies and front companies&comma; tricked people into giving up their homes&period; The damage allegedly caused by these defendants went far beyond <a class&equals;"wpil&lowbar;keyword&lowbar;link" href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;fraudswatch&period;com&sol;tag&sol;financial-fraud&sol;" title&equals;"financial" data-wpil-keyword-link&equals;"linked" data-wpil-monitor-id&equals;"507">financial<&sol;a> harm&semi; as charged&comma; their schemes often resulted in victims being evicted from their homes&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>FBI Assistant Director Diego Rodriguez said&colon; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;All too often&comma; desperate homeowners fall prey to elaborate homeowner relief schemes&period; As alleged&comma; the defendants knowingly exploited the vulnerabilities of their victims&comma; making it their goal to capitalize on the misfortune of others&period; This behavior caused serious damage to a number of struggling families who were forced out of their homes&period; The FBI continues to support partnerships within the <a class&equals;"wpil&lowbar;keyword&lowbar;link" href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;fraudswatch&period;com&sol;category&sol;mortgage&sol;" title&equals;"mortgage" data-wpil-keyword-link&equals;"linked" data-wpil-monitor-id&equals;"36">mortgage<&sol;a> industry and law enforcement as we work together to combat this serious crime&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>SIGTARP Inspector General Christy Goldsmith Romero said&colon; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;As part of TARP&comma; the government implemented the Making Home Affordable &lpar;MHA&rpar; program which contains many free mortgage assistance programs for distressed homeowners&period; For homeowners seeking mortgage modifications&comma; the Home Affordable Modification Program &lpar;HAMP&rpar; is available and&comma; like the other government programs&comma; it is free to apply&period; Homeowners need to avoid anyone asking to take the title to their home&comma; or selling their home as part of a <a class&equals;"wpil&lowbar;keyword&lowbar;link" href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;fraudswatch&period;com&sol;category&sol;loans&sol;" title&equals;"loan" data-wpil-keyword-link&equals;"linked" data-wpil-monitor-id&equals;"182">loan<&sol;a> modification or assistance program&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>DFS Acting Superintendent of Financial Services Shirin Emami said&colon; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;As alleged in these charges&comma; these arrests shut down an elaborate scheme that preyed on innocent people seeking to save their homes from foreclosure&period; Victimizing financially distressed homeowners is a despicable crime and the Department of Financial Services will continue to aggressively investigate cases such as this&period; We thank the U&period;S&period; Attorney’s office for their cooperation and diligent work pursuing this matter&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>According to the allegations in the Complaint unsealed yesterday in Manhattan federal court&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>From January 2013 through May 2015&comma; SAMANTHA BOUBERT&comma; CHRISTINE MAHARAJ&comma; OWEN REID&comma; and others&comma; &lpar;collectively&comma; the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Hillside Fraud Team”&rpar; targeted distressed homeowners in the New York City area&comma; including the Bronx&comma; Brooklyn&comma; and Queens&period; The Hillside Fraud Team&comma; which primarily operated from a Hillside Avenue address&comma; tricked and coerced homeowners into selling or deeding their properties to a Hillside business they controlled&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Hillside Fraud Team sent mailings to the owners of distressed properties on the letterhead of the Homeowners Assistance Services of New York &lpar;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;HASNY”&rpar;&comma; inviting the homeowners to seek assistance from HASNY to avoid foreclosure and save their homes&period; The Hillside Fraud Team also hired telemarketers to contact homeowners and to invite them to meet with HASNY representatives to learn more about avoiding foreclosure&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>REID and others trained and directed the telemarketers to appeal to the emotions of the owners of distressed properties&period; They developed a script for telemarketers to use in their calls&comma; which included&comma; in substance&comma; a statement that a short sale would be a means for homeowners to lower their monthly payments and still remain in their homes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Many of the homeowners who sought assistance from HASNY met with a member of the Hillside Fraud team&comma; who typically advised the homeowner that HASNY could assist him or her with a loan modification&period; In other cases&comma; homeowners were advised that a loan modification could not be completed&comma; but a particular type of short sale could be arranged in which the homeowner would sell the property to a third party&comma; Launch Development&comma; and then a relative of the homeowner could repurchase the property from Launch Development within 90 days&period; Homeowners typically were told they could remain in their homes throughout the entire process&period; REID and MAHARAJ both participated in these meetings&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>After an initial meeting with homeowners&comma; a closing typically was scheduled during which the homeowner would meet with another co-conspirator who was described as the homeowner’s attorney for the transaction&period; The homeowners&comma; who had been led to believe that they were about to receive a loan modification or would be able to transfer their property to a trusted relative&comma; were encouraged to sign documents&comma; which in some cases were blank&period; Unbeknownst to the homeowners&comma; by signing some of those documents&comma; they were agreeing to sell their homes to a Hillside Business – often Launch Development – and would be forced to vacate their homes soon thereafter&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As part of the fraud&comma; the Hillside Fraud Team often used Uniform Commercial Code liens to coerce victims into participating in these deals&period; BOUBERT filed liens on homeowner properties&comma; even when those homeowners owed no debt to a Hillside Business&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>After purchasing a property from a homeowner&comma; members of the Hillside Fraud Team typically appeared at the homeowner’s residence and demanded that the homeowner vacate the premises&comma; or commenced eviction proceedings against the homeowner&comma; or both&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Hillside Fraud Team generated millions of dollars as a result of their fraudulent scheme&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>BOUBERT&comma; MAHARAJ&comma; and REID are each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud&comma; which carries a maximum term of 30 years in prison&period; The maximum potential sentences in this case are prescribed by Congress and are provided here for informational purposes only&comma; as any sentencings of the defendants will be determined by the judge&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Amir Meiri&comma; Mario Alvarenga&comma; and Rajesh Maddiwar have previously been charged in connection with the Hillside Fraud&comma; in the case United States v&period; Alvarenga&comma; et al&period;&comma; 15 Cr&period; 627 &lpar;ER&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p align&equals;"center">&ast; &ast; &ast;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mr&period; Bharara praised the outstanding work of the FBI&comma; SIGTARP&comma; and the New York State Department of Financial Services for their investigative efforts and ongoing support and assistance with the case&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The prosecution of this case is being overseen by the Office’s General Crimes Unit&period; Assistant U&period;S&period; Attorneys Jaimie L&period; Nawaday and Andrew M&period; Thomas are in charge of the case&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The charges contained in the Complaint are merely accusations&comma; and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This is <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;justice&period;gov&sol;usao-sdny&sol;pr&sol;three-individuals-charged-manhattan-federal-court-multimillion-dollar-scheme-deceive" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener"> original source<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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