Hawaii Feds Bust Four Foreclosure Rescue Operators In Alleged Equity Stripping, Sale-Leaseback Scam Targeting Financially Strapped Homeowners

In Honolulu, Hawaii, the Honolulu Advertiser reports:

• The two top executives of a Honolulu mortgage company were indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly coordinating a scheme that bilked banks and troubled homeowners out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, court documents show.(1)

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• They are accused of targeting homeowners on the brink of foreclosure — including some who were members of Calvary Chapel Pearl Harbor — and offering relief if the homeowners agreed to a temporary sale of the house to a third party "investor" who worked for John Dimitrion, according to court documents.

• The four allegedly told the homeowners they could remain in their homes and their title would be returned to them after a set period of time. Homeowners paid John Dimitrion $20,000 for the service, thinking their mortgage payments would be handled by Dimitrion's company, court documents said.

• John Dimitrion and his associates applied for larger loans than what the homeowners owed and allegedly stole the proceeds by funneling the money into fake escrow accounts created by Julie Dimitrion, the documents said. In each case the homeowner was unable to make the payments on the larger loan, the documents show.

For more, see Honolulu mortgage company executives indicted in scam (Company's founder, wife, 2 others accused in home loan scheme).

(1) According to the story, John M. Dimitrion, founder and chief executive of Mortgage Alliance LLC and his wife, Julie A.B. Dimitrion, the firm's chief financial officer, were indicted with Rick Kealoha Pa Jr. and Benjamin Yoshito Thompson after they allegedly defrauded homeowners and lending institutions by promising to stave off foreclosure.