Massachusetts AG Lawsuit Revolves Around Use Of "Liar's Loans"

Buried in an Associated Press article making the rounds in various print media outlets is a reference to a lawsuit filed by the Massachusetts Attorney General against real estate broker Roberta Roninson, her brokerage office, Champagne & Associates, and Rachel Noyes, a bartender-turned-mortgage broker for using “unfair and deceptive tactics to target and deceive low-income consumers into committing to mortgages they could not qualify for or afford.” The suit reportedly claims that the women made thousands of dollars in fees for putting together home purchases and financing that were bound to fail.

The general subject of the article focuses on the use of "stated income" mortgage loans (referred to by some as "liar's loans"), and describes how the defendants were reportedly holding "free seminars" that were drawing as many as 40 to 50 people in an effort to recruit home buyers. While the comapnies named in the lawsuit are out of business, Robinson has reportedly opened a new real estate brokerage under the name, Opulent Realty Inc. Noyes, the bartender-turned-mortgage broker, apparently has skipped town, and is now reportedly in Florida.

For more, see Drawn into real estate frenzy, a neighborhood finds loans too good to be true (reported, among other places, in the San Diego Union-Tribune).