Foreclosure Rescue Scammer Convicted On State Charges Now Faces Federal Bankruptcy Fraud Allegations Involving Fractional Interest Deed Transfers

In Oakland, California, the San Francisco Chronicle reports:

• A Livermore business owner is facing federal charges for allegedly taking advantage of the mortgage crisis by running an elaborate foreclosure rescue scam, court records show. Sonia Alburez, 37, [...] is accused of inducing homeowners desperate to avoid foreclosure to transfer an interest in their properties to what turned out to be sham companies. She was charged Friday with four counts of bankruptcy fraud in U.S. District Court in Oakland.(1)

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• She claimed that her company, Community Home Saver Program, could delay or stop foreclosure proceedings so long as homeowners transferred an interest in their properties as a gift to one of several companies and paid fees, authorities said.

• But her customers didn't realize that the companies in question were fictitious and bankrupt, authorities said. Alburez is accused of filing fraudulent bankruptcy petitions for properties in Fremont, San Ramon, Vallejo and Modesto from January to March to delay foreclosure proceedings.

For more, see Livermore woman charged in foreclosure scam.

See also: this report on the use of abusive bankruptcy court filings in connection with foreclosure rescue scams.

Go here for other posts on fractional interest deed transfer, foreclosure rescue bankruptcy scams.

(1) According to the story, Alburez and Verena Silva pleaded no contest earlier this year in Alameda County Superior Court in a similar case. Prosecutors said the women bilked more than a dozen homeowners of $1,500 to $2,500 a month in exchange for a plan the two allegedly said would save homes from foreclosure. Instead, the victims still lost their homes, as well as the money they paid Alburez and Silva. According to an earlier story, they were found guilty of two felony counts each of foreclosure rescue fraud and grand theft. loan modification