NY Feds Indict Two In Equity Stripping, Straw Buyer Scam

In The Bronx, New York, the Daily News reports:

• A Bronx real estate broker who hosted a radio show on WBLS and WLIB inviting distressed homeowners to contact her for help was charged Thursday with ripping them off instead. Lavette Bills, head of MTC Real Estate, was charged along with Kirk Lacey, a Jamaican who lives in Florida, in a brazen $800,000 mortgage fraud scheme that allegedly preyed on people fearful of foreclosure.

• In one case, Bills, 36, persuaded a Bronx homeowner who had called the show for help to put Bills' name on the deed to her house on Tinton Ave. by promising to get the homeowner a loan to pay off the $38,000 mortgage. Bills sold the home to a straw buyer, according to the U.S. attorney's office and the FBI. Bills allegedly made $150,000 on the crooked deal, including taking a $50,000 broker's fee for the bogus sale.

• The homeowner, who just wanted to pay off the small mortgage, is now in foreclosure. Thanks to Bills, the new mortgage on the house totals $337,500, prosecutors said.

For the story, see Radio 'foreclosure specialist' Lavette Bills held in $800G mortgage con.

See also, The Journal News: Broker from Briarcliff faces charge.

• [T]he papers detail another transaction in which the pair allegedly used another straw buyer to get a $495,000 loan to buy a Bronx property. The defendants paid $300,000 for the property, the complaint says. The FBI interviewed the straw buyers involved in the transactions but the criminal complaint does not name them. The loan application contained a number of false statements, including misinformation about the straw buyer's job, income and residence, authorities said.

From the U.S Attorney's Office (Southern District, New York):

• Press Release - Two Real Estate Representatives Charged With Mortgage Fraud Targeting Distressed Homeowners On The Radio.