Ten Persons Accused of Foreclosure Scam
Ten persons – scammers and fraudsters, had tricked house owners in San Diego and Riverside counties. The grand jury accused them of misappropriating thousands of dollars from the hapless foreclosure victims, taking advantage of their vulnerable position. They were tricked into paying fees for saving them foreclosure – something that never happened.
The ten were charged on over 150 felony counts. The office of the District Attorney said that the crimes were discovered in 2008 following complaints lodged by the house owners – most of whom were Hispanics.
The charges were that the victims were made to pay fees to these scammers posing as foreclosure consultants. In reality they did nothing to prevent the borrowers from losing their homes. Some of those who complained had hardly a working knowledge of English said Stephen Robinson, the Deputy District Attorney.
In May last year five of the suspects had been arrested. The Superior Court brought charges of grand theft, conspiracy, rent skimming as well as deceitful practices against the ten persons. They were William Hutchings (62), his wife Xiaoke Li (43) Edgar Martinez (30), Diego Gil (38), Shawna Landis (29), Octavio Escatel (29), Joel Garcia (26), Stephen Mauer (54) Rose Napoli (34) and Alex Olmos (39). The accused put up attorneys for their defense who said that the indictments would be challenged.
Peter Liss the legal representative of Diego Gil said that his hope was that both sides would sit down and try to resolve the case. He added, “There are homeowners who clearly lost substantial sums of money here and the sooner we can reach a resolution, the sooner these homeowners will get their money back.”
The kingpins of the gang are Robinson and Hutchings – the organizers and the brain behind the move. Gregory Turner, the attorney for Hutchings insisted on his client’s innocence saying that the latter had only tried to help the house owners. He clarified, “These homeowners were already victims of predator lending by the mortgage industry. They were already late on their mortgages, in default and on the brink of foreclosure.” The attorney of the married couple Gerald Bank said that there was no ground to believe that neither husband nor wife had committed any fraud.
If found guilty, they might have to serve jail terms ranging from three to twenty five years. The authorities froze their bank accounts so as to keep funds for repaying back to the victims.
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