Illinois Feds Get Mortgage Fraud Guilty Plea From Notorious Chicago-Area Foreclosure Rescue Operator

In Chicago, Illinois, the Chicago Tribune reports:

• Flashy mortgage broker Edwin Evans once trolled the South Side in a Lexus sedan and promised cash-strapped homeowners that he could help them stave off foreclosure. Now he's likely to trade his pinstripe suit for orange prison coveralls. On Wednesday, Evans pleaded guilty in a mortgage fraud case, and federal prosecutors say they will ask a judge to sentence him to at least 27 months in prison. His detailed plea agreement put a spotlight on mortgage fraud, the growing crime in which swindlers use forgery and face-to-face scams to secure loans that are never repaid. Because the houses often fall vacant, the crime can threaten entire neighborhoods, as well as financially victimize homeowners and lenders.

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• He specialized in controversial bailout deals, in which a homeowner deeded his house to Evans or an investor for a year, believing the reprieve would allow time to get out of debt and repurchase the home with a fresh mortgage. But his property deals often unraveled amid contradictory records and civil court allegations of fraud, records show. And in the end, the homes were lost in the process, not rescued.

For more, see Guilty plea in mortgage fraud (Edwin Evans, a convicted rapist turned mortgage broker whose schemes were detailed in stories two years ago, could face a 27-month prison sentence).