Friday, February 06, 2009

Bust Made In Fort Myers-Area Alleged Mortgage Fraud/Rent To Own Scam; Homes Let Go To Foreclosure; Tenants Get Boot, Straw Buyers Left Holding The Bag

In Miami, Florida, The News Press reports that, according to Miami-Dade police, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement have arrested Paul Bosnyak, who is suspected of being involved in an alleged real estate fraud conspiracy with a number of others, and with the company Alternative Home Financing, Inc., of Fort Myers.(1)
  • [A]ccording to the documents, Alternative would find people and pay them to allow the company to apply for mortgages in their names to buy houses. The state attorney’s office alleges that the company would falsify application information so the person could qualify for the mortgage.

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  • Alternative would manage the property, finding tenants who would make monthly payments in a lease-to-own option. After a specified amount of time, the company would stop making mortgage payments, causing the house to foreclose. The tenant would be kicked out of the house and the person whose name was used for the loan would be associated with the foreclosure.

For the story, see Mortgage fraud scheme involved dozens of Lee homes.

See also, NBC2 News: Man facing RICO charge in alleged scam:

  • The State Attorney's Office says AHFI would place a tenant with insufficient credit into the person's home under a proposed lease/option to buy contract. The tenant would pay a $5,000 deposit and make a monthly payment. In the end- the warrant says that AHFI paid very few of the bills and allowed the mortgages to go into foreclosure.

(1) According to court documents filed Jan. 23, Bosnyak, Jeremy Hatlee, James Dalonzo, Brian Chili and Trinity Hansen worked with a group of three others as part of a conspiracy dating back to 2002. Kim Jack, Erich Heckler and Erilng Hall ran Alternative Home Financing, Inc. Charges were filed by the state attorney’s office in 2006 against Jack, Heckler, Hall and seven others. Hatlee, of Fort Myers, Chili, of Lehigh Acres, and Hansen, of Fort Myers were all arrested Jan. 23, 2009. Jack, a foreign national, is still on the lam and, according to his attorney, his visa expired and he took off to his native England, the story reports. rent to own lease purchase option scams yellowstone