Long Island Loan Originator At Center Of A Foreclosure Controversy

On Long Island, New York, Newsday reports on Aaron Wider, a Garden City mortgage banker who finds himself in the middle of a controversy involving over a dozen former customers who now find themselves facing foreclosure. According to the story, the:

• [h]omeowners say Wider sold them homes at inflated prices and arranged mortgages they could never afford. Of three cases examined by Newsday, two buyers were first-time homeowners. The third closed on a house while his wife was in a coma. She died the next month. In all three cases, the buyers -- motivated by a combination of optimism, naivete and desperation to own a home -- placed their financial future in the hands of someone they barely knew.

• In an interview, Wider said the homes were worth what the buyers paid for them and that he was serving his community by lending in an area, East Massapequa, that is underserved by mainstream banks. "Banks will not lend to the minorities in the neighborhood," Wider said. "Nobody will lend in that area." However, two of the three buyers interviewed by Newsday are white; one is Hispanic.

The story describes how a couple of the homeowners came about getting involved with Wider. In addition, at least in one case, what seems to be a technique not uncommon in foreclosure rescue and other real estate scams is reportedly used - the use of a "chaotic closing" - in which the homeowners being scammed feel pressured and intimidated by two or more of those present at the closing / settlement table into signing a pile of papers without reading them and, if represented by an attorney, the attorney representing them is provided to the homeowner by the alleged scammer.

For more, see Loan was too good to be true (if link expires, try here).

For a more extensive Newsday investigative report on some of Aaron Wider's real estate transactions, see Homeowners entangled in loan scheme (if link expires, try here).

For more on Aaron Wider, see GreenPoint Bank Lawsuit For $15 Million Claims Federal Bank Fraud ("International Mortgage Center Inc. and its CEO, Aaron Wider have filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Court of the State of New York/County of Queens against GreenPoint Bank seeking relief in the amount of $15 million ...").