A mortgage broker already facing charges of ripping off the family of a 9/11 terrorist attack victim has been sued for allegedly stealing a New York woman’s home.
Michael McEnroe, a mortgage broker from Levittown, N.Y., is accused in a lawsuit filed in State Supreme Court in Nassau County of using fraud to take control of a woman’s house and $25,000 in equity.
In a separate incident in June, McEnroe and Ryan Gosin, owners of The Able Group, were charged by the Nassau County District Attorney with defrauding two victims out of $450,000.
In a statement District Attorney Denis Dillon said the money “was to be used for real estate investments but instead was used to pay for the personal and unrelated business expenses of Gosin and McEnroe.”
“The money one of the victims used to pay the investment was part of her financial settlement as a result of her son’s death as the World Trade Center on Sept. 11th,” Dilon said.
Gosin and McEnroe are awaiting trial on the charges. Neither could be reached to comment.
McEnroe is also being investigated by the district attorney for his role in allegedly stealing the home of Debra Collins, a Wantagh, N.Y., widow who was facing foreclosure on her home, according to her lawyer, Bill Friedman.
“Mortgage fraud is becoming far too common. It’s going to be bigger than the savings and loan scandal,” Friedman told MortgageDaily.com. “It’s targeting poor neighborhoods, where I happen to do my work, and these guys are preying on people like dogs in heat.”
Collins, a secretary, owed nearly $200,000 on her home. She fell behind on her $1,100 monthly mortgage payments after her husband died, Friedman said.
After the holder of mortgage filed to foreclosure on her house Collins was approached by McEnroe, Friedman said.
According to Friedman, McEnroe promised to get a new loan for Collins that would lower her payments. He also told her she could continue to live in the house and eventually get it back.
McEnroe allegedly had Collins sign a quitclaim deed that gave him ownership of the house. According to Friedman he told her the only way to save the house was to deed it over to him. Then, she could pay rent until her credit had improved to the point where she could buy the home back from him.
The papers Collins allegedly signed actually gave McEnroe possession of her home. He eventually booted her when she couldn’t make the payments, Friedman said.
“He said, ‘Listen honey, I can save your house with a creative house payment and set you up with a rental’,” Friedman said McEnroe told Collins. “Then, he told her, she could eventually get her house back.
“But it was all a scheme to steal her house,” Friedman charged.
At one point Collins, who is now staying with relatives, was sleeping in her car.
Friedman said he has six other clients that have suffered similar fates at the hands of “scam artists.”
“It’s out of sight, it’s happening all over the place and it’s becoming a national problem,” he said.
