Alleged Long Island Foreclosure Rescue, Equity Stripping Scammers Among 16 Included In Two Federal Fraud Indictments

In Nassau and Suffolk County, New York, Newsday reports:

• [F]ederal officials yesterday arrested 16 people who they said were involved in two multimillion-dollar Long Island mortgage fraud schemes, including one suspected of being tied to a drug distribution ring. The schemes are believed by investigators to have bilked lenders of a total of $13.9 million through finance companies in both Nassau and Suffolk counties.

• Those arrested [in the alleged foreclosure rescue, equity stripping scheme] included Robert Guerrero, 33, who Brooklyn federal prosecutors said controlled Property Cash Inc. of Greenlawn. According to an indictment unsealed yesterday, Property Cash was nominally in the name of his girlfriend, Alison Edelman, 30, who was also charged. Federal agents also arrested Gary Jacques, 33, who according to court papers controlled Home Cash Inc. of Huntington Station.(1)

• According to the indictment, Guerrero and Jacques used straw buyers with good credit to fraudulently obtain mortgages to pay for homes in Huntington, Greenlawn, Bay Shore and Uniondale at inflated prices.

• Guerrero and Jacques gained control of the properties through use of a "foreclosure rescue scheme" in which they promised homeowners in danger of defaulting on their mortgages that they could sign their properties over to Home Cash or Property Cash, a method that stole the equity, the indictment charged.

• The various straw buyers, who were paid up to $10,000 for their participation, had their credit inflated by Guerrero and Jacques, the indictment stated. Once Guerrero and Jacques got the properties, they flipped them at prices inflated with the help of licensed appraisers, prosecutors charged. The scheme lost lenders $8.8 million, prosecutors said.

For more, including the details of the second alleged mortgage fraud case, see Feds accuse 16 in LI mortgage fraud schemes.

See also:

• U.S. Attorney (Brooklyn, NY) press release: Sixteen Defendants Indicted In Two Mortgage Fraud Schemes Involving Over $13 Million In Loans,
• Long Island Press: Feds Uncover Massive LI Mortgage Scam, Cocaine Ring.

(1) According to the U.S. Attorney press release, those charged in this alleged scam are: LAWRENCE ALBERS, 51; AL CASSIANO JR., 41; ALISON EDELMAN, 30; RONY PHILIPPE EXANTUS, 45; ROBERT ALEXANDER GUERRERO, 33; VICTOR GUERRERO, 35; ANSY GUERRIER, 29; GARY JACQUES, 33; JEFFREY JACQUES, 25; MICHAEL McENROE, 37; JOHANNY MENDEZ, 26; SANDRA SAM, 44.