Three Alleged Mortgage Scammers Arrested In California

Just one day after government authorities announced they would be bringing the hammer down on loan-modification scammers, three people have been arrested in California for allegedly defrauding homeowners looking to revise the terms of their mortgages.

Magdalena Salas, Angelina Mireles and Julissa Garcia, all of Stockton, California, were arrested Thursday and are being held at the San Joaquin County Jail, according to a release from the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or SIGTARP.

Salas, Mireles and Garcia are accused of multiple counts of conspiracy, false advertising, and grand theft of personal property. The SIGTARP release claims that the three collected thousands of dollars in fees from California homeowners who were hoping to modify their mortgages, but that the homeowners never got the help they were looking for, and that some of them ended up losing their homes.

Unsavory mortgage practices have become widespread since the onset of the housing crash, which has left countless homeowners trying to stay one step ahead of foreclosure -- presenting a prime opportunity for scammers who claim they can lower homeowners' payments.

And such practices are exactly what a new government task force, announced earlier this week, is aiming to stamp out.

The task force, a collaboration between SIGTARP, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Treasury Department, will investigate people and companies suspected of trying to take advantage of homeowners seeking mortgage modifications.

Salas's company, Legacy Home Loans and Real Estate, was allegedly doing just that. A complaint filed with the state Superior Court names two dozen homeowners from whom Salas, Mireles and Garcia supposedly collected fees in exchange for loan modifications that never took place.

The complaint also accuses Salas of practicing real estate without a license, and says that Legacy Home Loans -- whose Web site header reads, "We are committed to making your dreams come true" -- distributed fliers in English and Spanish to Stockton homeowners reading, "WE WILL SAVE YOUR HOME! GUARANTEED!!"

A consumer fraud alert issued by SIGTARP this week notes that such guarantees are almost always a red flag for a scam, since third-party companies can't actually promise that a loan will be modified. Those decisions are only made by mortgage servicers.

Stockton, where Salas's company is based, may be particularly vulnerable to foreclosure-related scams. The city has had one of the highest foreclosure rates in the country since the onset of the housing crisis. In October, one in every 148 homes in Stockton received a foreclosure filing, according to HousingWire.

Last month, SIGTARP took action against more than 100 Web sites advertising mortgage-modification services on Google, Bing and Yahoo! search pages. SIGTARP says these sites were running similar scams -- asking for payment up front, then failing to deliver modified loans or giving bad advice.

Comments

[ReaItors Are Liars]

08:41 AM on 12/05/2011

And the corrupt reaItors and criminal mortgage salesmen are still walking around scot-free.

[layla1]

10:36 PM on 12/04/2011

First ask yourself why so many people have made the desperation move to try to use a home modification firm, the answer is easy.. because they have been so screwed by the banks, JPMORGAN CHASE to name a big one, that they are willing to try anything... Arrest the real criminals the CEO's of these banks. Once that happens our economy will improve. We are choking on their greed and our bitterness.

[kingemperor]

02:35 AM on 12/05/2011

You are right, it doesn't make sense too me. The companies can include GE "General Electric" and other banks that close peoples' mortgages.

Doesn't make any sense spending resources on useless actions. the resources should be spent to help home owners.

[nanreh]

03:35 PM on 12/04/2011

the real crooks will be walking free in this country until HELL FREEZES OVER.......WHY?

They buy lawyers, judges politicians

The main culprits HANK PAULSON, EX TREASURY SECRETARY, BEN BERNANKE, GEORGE W BUSH THE PUPPET concocted the

The Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) was signed into law by U.S. President George W. Bush on October 3, 2008.

THE ABOVE WE KNOW.. BELOW IS SECRET, SAME PROTAGONISTS...

Re: 7.7 TRILLION in loans to Big Banks and Wall Street
Posted: Dec 2, 2011 8:12 PM

Fed Loans to Big Banks Undisclosed to Congress
Nov. 28 (Bloomberg) — The Federal Reserve and the big banks fought for more than two years to keep details of the largest bailout in U.S. history a secret. Now, the rest of the world can see what it was missing.
The Fed didn’t tell anyone which banks were in trouble required a combined $1.2 trillion on Dec. 5, 2008, their single neediest day. And no one calculated until now that banks reaped an estimated $13 billion of income by taking advantage of the Fed’s below-market rates, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its January issue.

ACTUALLY THE TRILLION DOLLAR LOANS ARE AT 0.01% ALLOWING THE US GOVERNMENT TO BORROW THIS ELECTRONIC MONEY AT 3% NET PROFIT TO THE BIG BANKS....................

When are these people goin to jail.....................

[Osusuki]

01:16 PM on 12/04/2011

This isn't going to be a popular comment, but the fact is there wouldn't be room for scams like this if the Obama administration had done what they should have in the area of foreclosure relief. They should have made the lenders (who still made a tidy profit, by the way) eat the cost of the housing valuation adjustment. It was the lenders, not the borrowers, who pushed 2008 housing prices in California to two and a half times what they had been a decade before. This was a decade in which cumulative inflation was just over 34%. The lenders pushed these deals when they knew an eight to one ratio of housing price to consumer price index could not be sustained. We now know the lenders were relying on a government bailout which was sure to come when the bubble burst. The lenders looted the middle class, and the lenders should have to pay it back, but the Obama administration refused to do the right thing in this as in so many other areas, and we have a void into which scammers are drawn like moths to a flame. Sure, punish the overt criminals, but don't forget to bring the covert criminals to justice while you're at it.

[webnova]

12:24 PM on 12/04/2011

I can't for the life of me figure this out. The banks, "in your face" forged documents, illegally foreclose on property they have absolute no legal interest in, gave false modification with illegal intent and what does the Government do ... go after these few small time criminals ..... Where is the real justice? Where is our federal Government? Shouldn't our Federal Government feel ashamed that the Attorney General from the small State of Massachusetts file charges with all the Banks on these very actions I have mentioned and yet they still do nothing.
Something is VERY WRONG here.

[webwzrd]

11:36 AM on 12/04/2011

The greedy always come out of the woodwork in the bad times, but these are just the guppies. When do we get to see some big bank sharks doing a perp walk?

[SeaOtterBaby]

11:16 AM on 12/04/2011

Next, the BANKS!!! The BIG SCAMS are there!

[be practical]

09:30 AM on 12/04/2011

CT went after some (relative) small time scammers too. I guess they think that makes what the big banks did (the real criminals) OK. Until we go after the real criminals I won't be satisfied.

[ResearchtheFacts]

12:29 AM on 12/04/2011

Wonder if they first checked legal status of these fine citizens like they do us at the DMV?  Magdalena Salas, Angelina Mireles and Julissa Garcia, all of Stockton, California, were arrested. Seeing how they contribute to society, pay their taxes and are law abiding citizens.

[be practical]

09:33 AM on 12/04/2011

So if they are 'illegal' does that make some worse than 'legal' scammers? They are all criminals so your assumption brings nothing to the table.

[ResearchtheFacts]

01:45 PM on 12/04/2011

Yes, it would show a consistent disregard for US laws. Why would you obey any law when you broke the law just sneaking into the country?

[msjimmied]

12:06 AM on 12/04/2011

Don't fall for the Barney Frank, Fannie and Freddie focus, listen to what a banker from Chase had to say about what he knew happened. They are ALL scammers...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/01/opinion/kristof-a-banker-speaks-with-regret.html?_r=2

[be practical]

09:27 AM on 12/04/2011

The people that need to read this won't. Thanks for citing it - excellent story from a banker that confirms what many of us had already suspected. F&F

[GTKZ]

11:41 PM on 12/03/2011

In my book, scammers are as depraved as rapists and child abusers.

[SDindependent]

10:58 PM on 12/03/2011

How about BofA, Citi and Wells Fargo........... three more they could go after.

[withonor]

08:30 PM on 12/03/2011

Arresting three people doesn't give the government redemption for allowing corporations to run the same scams. Convict everyone who has had a hand in the financial market wallet. There has to be a notion that punishment will follow bad behavior or people will repeat it over and over again.

[ReaItors Are Liars]

04:51 PM on 12/03/2011

"Calif. home prices down another 6%"

http://lansner.ocregister.com/2011/10/06/calif-home-prices-off-6-2-7th-worst-drop/128573/

Why buy a house today when you can buy later for 60% less?

[piceaglauca]

08:28 PM on 12/03/2011

That's what I have been doing.

[goldhillnv]

02:48 PM on 12/03/2011

These people look small time. We need to get the executives who allowed this.

[Margo Arrowsmith]

05:59 PM on 12/03/2011

Fanned, my thoughts exactly.   I mean arrest them, but then go after the big guys and the bankers.    Jon Stewart has a segment called "How the F Did Martha Stewart Go to Jail"?  Where he shows the source where they cheat us out of trillions and the people responsible get bonuses while Stewart and these women go to jail.