Two Victims Of Maryland Mortgage Payment Scheme Ensnared In Another Allegedly Bogus Plan

In Prince George's County, Maryland, The Washington Post reports:

• It's happened again. Some of the same people who lost money last year to the Metro Dream Homes mortgage-payment scheme lost tens of thousands of dollars more to another debt-payment plan before it was shut down by the Maryland securities commissioner this month. The commissioner has ordered Edward Offutt and his Offutt Group companies, located in Silver Spring, to cease and desist from selling securities and engaging in investment advisory activities pending a hearing. Calls to Offutt's offices were not returned.

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• Two people who invested in Offutt's plan told me they did so because they were trying to avoid foreclosure on homes they bought in Prince George's County -- at inflated prices -- through the Dream Homes plan, run by a Laurel company, Metropolitan Grapevine, which doesn't appear to be associated with Offutt.

For more, see Another Losing Proposition for Homeowners.