Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Anatomy Of An Equity Stripping, Sale Leaseback Foreclosure Rescue Scam

An appellate brief filed a couple of years ago in the District of Columbia Court of Appeals tells the story of Maria Wilson, a Washington, D.C. homeowner who was victimized by foreclosure rescue operators Vincent Abell and Calvin Baltimore. The narative gives a step-by-step description of how Abell And Baltimore expropriated Wilson's home from her for practically no consideration.

As ugly of a story that it is, Ms. Wilson ultimately found herself the beneficiary of some pretty effective lawyering. Somehow or other, the parties wound up back in a D.C. trial court and, after a week-long jury trial, Ms. Wilson obtained a substantial jury verdict, including $3.3 million in punitive damages, against the perpetrators on account of the fraudulent sale-leaseback transaction. The eight-person jury found that the defendants — Vincent Abell, his company Modern Management, and his agent Calvin Baltimore — defrauded the plaintiff Maria Wilson and wrongfully took her home for a tiny fraction of its value.

For the story, see:

Shortly after the successful verdict in Maria Wilson's case, law firm Hogan & Hartson obtained very favorable settlements from many of the same defendants for five other D.C. homeowners victimized in similar sale-leaseback "expropriations" of their homes. Under the terms of the settlement, the defendants returned the homes of several of the victimized homeowners (many of them cleared of their old mortgages), plus more than $455,000 in cash compensation. See Hogan & Hartson Lawyers Save Homes for Washington D.C. Homeowners Victims Fall Prey to Mortgage Lending Scam.

For more on equity stripping scams, generally, see DREAMS FORECLOSED: The Rampant Theft of Americans' Homes Through Equity-stripping Foreclosure 'Rescue' Scams (4.61 MB approx.).

posted by Home Equity Theft Reporter at 4:05 AM