Foreclosure Rescue Civil Lawsuit Reads Like A Federal Criminal Indictment

In reading through the recent class action lawsuit filed on behalf of three Maryland homeowners against Metropolitan Money Store and a number of others, the complaint reads much like a criminal indictment would read that was handed up by a Federal grand jury to a Federal prosecutor. For example:

1) reference is made to a "Foreclosure Reversal Program," which was the name that the defendants allegedly gave to the scheme they are accused of using to cheat financially strapped homeowners out of their home equity. The lawsuit describes this Foreclosure Reversal Program as "a criminal enterprise which was made up of an association in fact consisting of [several of the named defendants],"

2) the complaint accuses the defendants of "hav[ing] engaged in willful, systemic and widespread violations of the Federal Racketeer Influenced And Corrupt Organizations Act ("RICO"), ...",

3) accusations are made of payments of "illegal kickbacks and unearned fees", preparation of "false HUD-1s" by the two named title insurance agency defendants, and that the homeowners were "robbed blind",

4) the complaint alleges that "The systematic false representations on HUD-1 Settlement Statements in the transactions ... were designed to conceal the illegalities of the transactions, ..."

5) allegations are made of conduct constituting wire fraud and mail fraud, and that "the false HUD-1 Settlement statements were utilized to launder the money being paid to the RICO defendants for the purpose of evading taxes ..."

6) allegations are made of charging and collecting interest and compensation on the "Foreclosure Reversal Program" loans in an amount that violated state law.

The defendants in this case include two title insurance agencies which, among other things, allegedly acted as the settlement/closing agents in the foreclosure rescue transactions described in the lawsuit, and two title insurers, for their alleged failure to properly supervise the title insurance agents who issued the title policies and handled the closings.

The defendants in this case are: Metropolitan Money Store Corp.; Fordham and Fordham Investment Group, Ltd.; RTE Title & Escrow, LLC; Sussex Title, LLC - formerly known as Cap Title, LLC; Diane Linda Jones; Leticia Nicholls; Jamie Armand Clark; Joy Jenis Jackson; Kurt Fordham; Alexander Jamil Chaudhry; Valeria Tomlin; Jennifer McCall; Southern Title Insurance Corp.; Chicago Title Insurance Company; and fifty unknown individuals that are currently referred to in the lawsuit as John Doe #1 through John Doe # 50, inclusive.

For a copy of the complaint, see Proctor, et al. v. Metropolitan Money Store, et al. (no exhibits).

You can also go here for direct links to the lawsuit (76 pages - $2.40) and the 28 accompanying exhibits (50+ pages - $.08/page) on the U.S. Courts' PACER website. PACER registration required.

Go here for other posts on the Maryland foreclosure rescue class action, which now also covers those homeowners in Washington, D.C. and Virginia who were allegedly ripped off by the named defendants.