Scammer Gets 13 Years In Credit Card Scam; Civil Suit & Criminal Investigation In Unrelated Alleged Foreclosure Rescue Scam Continues

The St. Petersburg Times reports:

• Peter J. Porcelli, who made a fortune with direct mail and telemarketing and took his Tampa Bay Smokers fast-pitch softball team to two world championships, was sentenced to 13 years in prison Monday for his part in a credit card scam that victimized tens of thousands of credit-poor consumers nationwide. Porcelli, 55, of Oldsmar [, Florida] was also ordered by a federal judge in East St. Louis, Ill., to pay restitution of $11,886,317. [...] The government sought a sentence of at least 15 years, 8 months, but Porcelli was given leniency for his cooperation with a federal grand jury investigation into his lending operation in the Tampa Bay area and for his testimony against executives who ran part of the credit card fraud in Utah and Nevada.

[...]

• Investigators are now looking at another possible credit scam that targeted down-on-their-luck consumers. U.S. postal inspectors and the Florida Department of Financial Services are investigating a nonprofit group called Safe Harbour Foundation and a mortgage company called Silverstone Lending that Porcelli operated out of the same Clearwater office. The nonprofit sought out desperate homeowners facing foreclosure and referred them to Silverstone for high-risk, short-term loans that appear to violate state laws.

• Two weeks ago, a group of homeowners who say they were victimized by the predatory lending operation filed a $40-million federal lawsuit against Porcelli, his companies and associates, claiming they were duped by the nonprofit's misrepresentations into signing for bailout loans with illegal fees and interest rates as high as 500 percent.

For more, see Judge sends $12-million message (That's the restitution an Oldsmar man must pay for a credit scam, plus 13 years in prison).

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