|
Defendant
|
Plaintiff
|
Court
|
Amount
|
Overview
|
Case Title
|
Case Number
|
Date Filed |
Date of Activity |
Link to Story |
| Calvin Brainard, Mary Brainard |
United States of America |
na |
$95,208 |
Charges filed, arrests made. |
na |
na |
na |
Dec. 2011 |
www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal030612.aspwww.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal030612.asp |
| Image Masters, Wesley A. Snyder |
na |
na |
$65,000,000 |
Defendant was sentenced to more than a decade in prison back in 2008. But in December, a Berks County, Pa., judge ordered six former employees to pay $1.4 million in restitution. |
na |
na |
na |
Dec. 2011 |
www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal122011.asp |
| Khristian Munizaga |
na |
na |
$200,000 |
Defendant sentenced to 61 months in prison for allegedly racking up $200,000 in purchases using counterfeit credit cards |
na |
na |
na |
10/21/2011 |
www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal103111.asp |
| Steve Zaven Kessedjian |
na |
na |
$57,343 |
Defendant arrested for allegedly utilizing $57,343 in proceeds on one refinance transaction that were intended to pay off credit card bills for his use. The victims reportedly lost their home to foreclosure because they couldn’t afford to pay both the mortgage and the unpaid creditors. |
na |
na |
na |
Nov. 2011 |
www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal122011.aspwww.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal122011.asp |
| Celina Villarreal |
na |
|
$8,000,000 |
Defendant pled guilty to stealing more than $8 million from the accounts held by five customers of her employer, Compass Bank |
na |
na |
na |
10/31/2011 |
www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal122011.asp |
| Danielle M. Keane |
United States of America |
U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania |
$452,038 |
Defendant was sentenced to 33 months in prison for creating unauthorized checks and covered up her crimes by adjusting the account ledger to make it look like the money was re-credited back into the pension account, leading the pensioner to believe that there was more money in the account than there actually was. |
na |
na |
na |
11/16/2011 |
www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal122011.aspwww.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal122011.asp |
| Julie Phillips |
na |
na |
$100,000 |
Defendant was sentenced to 12 months in prison for embezzling $100,000 from the Citigroup Inc. subsidiary while she was a district manager in Vermont |
na |
na |
na |
10/31/2011 |
www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal122011.aspwww.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal122011.asp |
| Stephanie Horne |
na |
na |
$94,000 |
Defendant has pleaded guilty to lying to the U.S. Secret Service about diverting $94,000 from customer accounts in 2004 to her family and friends |
na |
na |
na |
Nov. 2011 |
www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal122011.aspwww.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal122011.asp |
| Torlando Ramont Childress |
na |
na |
$377,112 |
Defendant sentenced to 18 months in prison for embezzling from South Carolina Community Bank |
na |
na |
na |
10/18/2011 |
www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal103111.asp |
| Ashik Ahmed Azeez |
na |
na |
$8,250 |
Defendant entered “no contest” plea to collecting illegal up-front fees through his businesses, Turbo Mortgage Modification and Turbo Solutions, in 2010. The plea agreement calls for him to spend 90 days in jail and return $8,250 to the borrowers. |
na |
na |
na |
Sept. 2011 |
www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal103111.asp |
| Christopher Fox, Curtis Melone, King Harris III |
State of California |
na |
na |
Fox and Curtis arrested. |
na |
na |
na |
Dec. 2011 |
www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationForeclosureFirms011612.asp |
| Christopher Johns, Allen Banks |
na |
na |
na |
Johns sentenced to 30 months prison. |
na |
na |
na |
Sept. 2011 |
www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal103111.asp |
| Gary Anderson, Patrick Campion, James Doherty, Keith Goodman, Troy Kent, Craig Lipton, Henry Pessah and Laith Salma |
na |
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California |
na |
All eight of the defendants agreed to plead guilty to bid-rigging at foreclosure auctions |
na |
na |
10/28/2011 |
na |
www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal103111.asp |
| Gary Trafford, Gerri Sheppard |
State of Nevada |
na |
na |
The state alleges that the defendants directed and supervised a robo-signing scheme where tens of thousands of fraudulent documents were filed with the Clark County Recorder’s Office between 2005 and 2008 |
na |
na |
11/15/2011 |
na |
www.mortgagedaily.com/IndictmentLps111711.asp |
| John Marcus Desenberg |
United States of America |
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California |
$300,000 |
Arrested over foreclosure-rescue scheme operated through Creative Lending Solutions. |
na |
na |
na |
21-Nov |
www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationForeclosureFirms011612.asp |
| Maria Ponce, Melissa Garcia |
Monterey County District Attorney Dean Flippo |
na |
$150,000 |
Ponce pled guilty to felony grand theft tied to a foreclosure rescue scam |
na |
na |
na |
Nov. 2011 |
www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationForeclosureFirms112111.asp |
| Marien Brown |
State of Missouri |
na |
$265,000 |
Sentencing planned for operator of 1st Financial Resource LLC who pled guilty on Sept. 27 to duping 80 Hawaiian borrowers into using her foreclosure-rescue service and keeping their payments instead of passing them along to the lenders |
na |
na |
8/8/2011 |
12/22/2011 |
www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationForeclosureFirms112111.asp |
| Meghan Shaw, Jennifer Bloecker, Joseph Noel, Tracy Lawrence (died before sentencing) |
Nevada Attorney General’s Office |
Las Vegas Justice Court |
na |
Three more indictments filed. Defendants are accused of “robo-signing.” |
na |
na |
11/16/2011 |
11/30/2011 |
www.mortgagedaily.com/MctLpsNotaries120611.asp |
| Robert Rose |
na |
U.S. District court for the Eastern District of California |
na |
Defendant pleaded guilty to bid-rigging in 2009 |
na |
na |
na |
9/23/2011 |
www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal103111.asp |
| Wiley C. Chandler, Andrew B. Katakis, Donald M. Parker, Anthony B. Joachim and W. Theodore Longley (10 total) |
United States of America |
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California |
na |
Indictment of five defendants accused of scheming to rig bids at public real estate auctions from September 2008 until October 2009. They also allegedly fraudulently acquired titles to some auctioned properties and diverted money to co-conspirators. |
na |
na |
12/7/2011 |
na |
www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal122011.aspwww.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal122011.asp, www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal030612.asp |
| 1st American Law Center, Gary Michael Bobel, Scott Thomas Spencer, Mark Andrew Spencer, Roger Trent Jones and Travis Corey Iverson |
na |
na |
$11,000,000 |
High-pressure sales tactics and “outright lies” were used to convince clients to fork over between $1,995 and $4,495 each. The defendants falsely claimed they had a team of attorneys who pre-screened clients and that they had a 98 percent success rate in obtaining modifications. Defendants pleaded guilty. |
na |
na |
na |
12/16/2011 |
www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal122011.asp |
| William Jeffrey Hutching |
na |
Court of Appeals of California, Fourth District, Division One |
$500,000 |
Defendant was convicted in connection with alleged deceitful practices related to foreclosure consulting and he was sentenced to 46 years prison. Defendant’s appeal was denied. |
THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. WILLIAM JEFFREY HUTCHINGS, Defendant and Appellant |
D057451 |
10/18/2011 |
na |
www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationForeclosureFirms112111.asp |
| Stephen Andrew Easterly and Emanuel Percival |
na |
na |
na |
Defendants arraigned for collecting between $3,500 and $7,000 from borrowers seeking to avoid foreclosures or modify their loans |
na |
na |
na |
Aug. 2011 |
www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal103111.asp |
| Samantha Carter |
Bank of America |
na |
$2,700,000 |
Squatter files affidavit of adverse possession forcing servicer to take foreclosed property off the market. |
na |
na |
na |
na |
www.mortgagedaily.com/MctTexasSquatters120411.asp |
| Alex Soria, Sonia Rodis, and Hans Johns |
State of Nevada |
na |
na |
Defendants arrested and charged with operating a mortgage scam that preyed on elderly and distressed borrowers |
na |
na |
10/27/2011 |
na |
www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationForeclosureFirms112111.asp |
| Alan David Tikal |
na |
Alameda County Superior Court |
na |
Owner of KATN Trust pleaded no contest and was found guilty of filing false documents and accepting advance fees on loan modifications. He was sentenced to 16 months prison plus restitution. |
People v. Alan David Tikal |
165379A |
na |
10/31/2011 |
www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationForeclosureFirms112111.asp, www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationForeclosureFirms011612.asp |
| Aaron Hand |
na |
na |
$100,000,000 |
Indictment of defendant who was already incarcerated for mortgage fraud over trying to pay a hitman to kill one of the witnesses in his fraud trial |
na |
na |
10/6/2011 |
na |
www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal103111.asp |
| Anthony Moya |
na |
na |
$269,722 |
Defendant pled guilty to obtaining loans for unqualified borrowers and misappropriating $269,722. Indictment against wife dismissed. |
na |
na |
na |
Dec. 2011 |
www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal122011.asp“>www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal122011.asp |
| Anthony Pagilone |
Colorado’s 10th Judicial District Attorney’s Office |
na |
$350,000 |
Defendant’s trial was called off while the Pueblo District Attorney’s office changes the criminal complaint., After charges filed alleging defendant obtained a mortgage without homeowner’s knowledge, judge ruled that the charge was filed after five-year statute of limitations expired. |
na |
na |
Nov. 2010 |
Dec. 2011 |
www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal103111.asp, www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal122011.asp |
| Randolph Branham, Chris Cadenhead, Jackie T. Fair, Jane M. McDonald and Larry J. Malone |
United States of America |
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida |
$1,200,000 |
Defendants have pled guilty to bribery tied to Southwest Georgia Farm Credit, ACA. |
na |
na |
na |
na |
www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal122011.asp“>www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal122011.asp |
| Robert G. Cusic |
United States of America |
na |
$80,000 |
Defendant admitted that he conspired to make people believe they were being criminally investigated, mostly by the Internal Revenue Service, and his special relationship with an IRS special agent could make their problems go away at a cost of $20,000. |
na |
na |
na |
11/28/2011 |
www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal122011.asp“>www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal122011.asp |
| Welton Kalani, Stephen Balino |
United States of America |
na |
$227,000 |
Guilty convictions. |
na |
na |
na |
Dec. 2011 |
www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal030612.asp“>www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal030612.asp |
| Jerry J. Williams, Thomas B. Hebble, Angel P. Guerzon, Francesco “Frank” Mileto |
na |
na |
na |
Hebble, Guerzon and Lileto sentenced in case tied to failure of Orion Bank. |
na |
na |
March 2011 |
10/26/2011 |
www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal103111.asp |
| S. Pope Cleghorn Jr., Russell T. Long |
na |
na |
$2,800,000 |
Cleghorn was senteced to 6 years for accepting kickbacks to approve two loans for $2.8 million. Long was also sentenced. |
na |
na |
na |
11/18/2011 |
www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal122011.asp |
| Joseph W. Traxler |
United States of America |
U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota |
$20,000,000 |
Centennial Mortgage and Funding CFO pleads guilty. |
na |
na |
na |
10/27/2011 |
www.mortgagedaily.com/MctPleaCentennial102711.asp |
| Gregory T. Smith, Roger Saunders |
na |
na |
$2,165,043 |
Smith was sentenced to 30 months in prison for fraudulent loan documents, forging signatures, and falsifying title insurance policies. Saunders entered guilty plea. |
na |
na |
na |
9/22/2011 |
www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal103111.asp |
| Alma Preciado |
Roger and Lourdes Vales |
na |
$350,000 |
After pleading guilty, defendant fled to Mexico. She was located and flown back to the U.S. and jailed in September. |
na |
na |
na |
Sept. 2011 |
www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal103111.asp |
| Andrew Hamilton Williams Jr., Michael Anthony Hickson, Isaac Jerome Smith, Alvita Karen Gunn, Carole Nelson and Charlotte Melissa Josephine Hardmon |
United States of America |
U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland |
$78,000,000 |
Defendants Williams, Hickson, Smith and Gunn were convicted of running a fraudulent investment business and operating a Ponzi scheme. Nelson and Hardmon have pleaded guilty in the case. |
na |
na |
na |
11/10/2011 |
www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal122011.asp |
| David A. Nilsen, Manoel Errico |
United States of America |
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California |
$69,828,833 |
Guilty plea for Nilsen, who founded Cedar Funding. |
na |
na |
na |
10/24/2011 |
www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationInvestor122611.asp |
| Matthew Kent, David Rubin, Joshua Gould |
na |
na |
$1,200,000 |
Kent pleaded guilty to convincing a retired investor to put up $1.2 million to be used as collateral for operations in return for monthly interest payments. But the funds were used for operating expenses, personal expenses and investments. |
na |
na |
na |
11/21/2011 |
www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal122011.asp“>www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal122011.asp |
| Metropolitan Grapevine LLC, Andrew H. Williams, Laveda Whitfield |
Maryland Attorney General Douglas Gansler |
U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland |
$55,000 |
Trial began on a cease-and-desist order for an alleged Ponzi scheme |
na |
na |
11/1/2011 |
11/1/2011 |
www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal103111.asp |
| Nicodemo S. Scarfo, Salvatore Pelullo (13 total) |
United States of America |
U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey |
na |
Indictment unsealed. Alleged crime family extracted millions of dollars from FirstPlus Financial Group Inc. |
na |
na |
na |
11/1/2011 |
www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationInvestor122611.asp |
| Wesley Alvin Snyder, Sydney Snyder |
State of Pennsylvania |
na |
$28,675,731 |
Judgment entered agasint OPFM president and spouse. |
na |
na |
na |
Dec. 2011 |
www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationInvestor122611.asp |
| Monroe L. Beachy |
United States of America |
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio |
$16,800,000 |
Defendant indicted over allegations he defrauded nearly 2,700 investors through his company, A&M Investments. U.S. District Judge Benita Pearson entered a “not guilty” plea on behalf of defendant. |
na |
na |
9/14/2011 |
10/27/2011 |
www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal103111.asp |
| Ebrahim Shabudin, Thomas Yu |
na |
na |
na |
Defendants indicted in connection with United Commercial Bank’s failure by conspiring to commit securities fraud, falsifying corporate books and records, and lying to auditors |
na |
na |
na |
na |
www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal103111.asp |
| Mark Alan Helsing |
na |
na |
$6,900,000 |
Defendant was sentenced to 15 years prison for stealing $6.9 million from 12 investors in a Ponzi and real estate fraud scheme. His companies were Sea View Investments, HLHS Financial Services Inc., Foothill Realty and Sea View Mortgage. |
na |
na |
na |
12/16/2011 |
www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal122011.aspwww.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal122011.asp, www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal103111.asp |
| Larry K. Shackelford |
na |
na |
na |
Guilty plea. |
na |
na |
na |
Dec. 2011 |
www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal030612.aspwww.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal030612.asp |
| Manuel Garcia |
United States of America |
U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico |
$585,244 |
Guilty plea from owner of Keyworth Mortgage Funding Group for deceiving First Community Bank. |
United States of America, Plaintiff, vs. Manuel Garcia, Defendant |
1:11-cr-01530-BB |
6/7/2011 |
10/14/2011 |
www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationSecondary012612.asp |
| Donna Shebetich |
na |
na |
$7,000,000 |
Defendant was sentenced to 72 months prison for lying about Metropolitan Savings Bank’s delinquent loans. |
na |
na |
na |
11/18/2011 |
www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal122011.asp |
| John Andrew Portik |
na |
St. Lucie County Circuit Court |
na |
After pleading no contest to making bomb threat against American Home Mortgage Servicing employee, defendant filed civil suit against servicer over allegations of defamation, abuse of process and intentional infliction of emotional distress. |
na |
na |
9/15/2011 |
na |
www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal103111.asp |
| Matthew Skinner |
na |
U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina |
na |
Defendant pled guilty to to personally accepting payments on mortgage loans |
na |
na |
na |
10/27/2011 |
www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal103111.asp |
| Rocky Prasad, Prestige Loans Corp. |
na |
Santa Clara County Superior Court |
$66,000 |
Defendant pled guilty to operating Prestige without a lending or business license, stealing up-front costs of $66,000 from two borrowers and falsely advertising on Prestige’s website a successful 20-year history. |
na |
na |
na |
11/21/2011 |
www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal122011.aspwww.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal122011.asp |
| Joshua Brown, John Sweetland, Brian Arrington, Brian Frank, Linda Defeo and Bruce Namenson |
na |
Suffolk Superior Court |
$12,500,000, |
Brown was convicted, co-defendants pleaded guilty. Sentencing was scheduled for Nov. 10. |
na |
na |
na |
11/10/2011 |
www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal103111.asp |
| Daniel J. Nichter |
na |
Franklin County (Ohio) |
$26,000 |
Guilty plea. |
na |
na |
Dec. 2010 |
Nov. 2011 |
www.mortgagedaily.com/MctFraudAppraiser011412.asp |
| Royce Lee Newcomb |
United States of America |
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California |
$2,900,000 |
Defendant was sentenced to 70 months in prison for allegedly operating a $2.9 million Ponzi scheme, marketing foreclosure rescue services through Paradigm Foreclosure Specialists, collecting between $1,300 and $3,800 from distressed borrowers and filing serial bankruptcy petitions without supporting documentation |
na |
na |
na |
9/29/2011 |
www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationForeclosureFirms112111.asp |
| David Findel |
na |
na |
$11,994,000 |
Defendant sentenced to 2 years in prison for bankruptcy fraud following a 63-month sentence for mortgage and secondary fraud. |
na |
na |
na |
12/12/2011 |
www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal122011.asp, www.mortgagedaily.com/LitigationCriminal103111.asp |
| Moss Adams |
Meridian Mortgage |
King County Superior Court |
$150,000,000 |
Defendant is accused of issuing fraudulent audit reports, which allowed a ponzi scheme to continue |
na |
na |
12/5/2011 |
12/5/2011 |
www.mortgagedaily.com/MctLawsuitMeridian120811.asp |
