Massachusetts Couple Sue Foreclosure Rescue Operator For Allegedly Swindling Them Out Of Home In Equity Stripping, Sale Leaseback Deal

In Auburn, Massachusetts, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette News reports:

• An Auburn couple have sued several people — including one who tried to flee the country with $1.3 million and has pleaded guilty to wire fraud in an unrelated case — of swindling them out of the title to their home. Auburn Fire Lt. Francis X. Hartnett, 35, and Kim M. Carville, 34, have been together for 12 years. [...] Last month, Mr. Hartnett and Ms. Carville say, they found out they lost title to their house two years ago. Mr. Hartnett and Ms. Carville contend the title was stolen by Stuart Brown, Trisha Graham and Allen J. Seymour, who was arrested Feb. 8 in Florida trying to flee the country on a private jet with $1.3 million hidden in his luggage.(1)

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• On July 24, Superior Court Judge Peter W. Agnes Jr. granted restraining orders against Wachovia Bank, the present holder of the delinquent mortgage, from foreclosing, and against Ms. Graham and Mr. Brown from collecting rent, coming to the property and evicting the couple and their two boys from the premises. “The ball is in their court now,” [the homeowners' lawyer, Margaret M.] Melican said. “They have to answer the suit within 20 days of having been served.”

For more, see Tricked out of home deed, couple say (Lawsuit says scammers preyed on their distress).

(1) According to the story: (a) On July 22, Mr. Seymour pleaded guilty to wire fraud and interstate transportation of property stolen or taken by fraud; (b) He recently was named by Assistant Attorney General Andrew Doherty as the mastermind behind an alleged mortgage fraud scheme in an investigation involving as many as 60 properties in Worcester County.