Final Conspirator In Maryland Sale Leaseback Foreclosure Rescue Scam Gets 46 Months

From the Office of the U.S. Attorney (Maryland):

• U.S. District Judge Deborah K. Chasanow sentenced Cheryl Brooke, age 52, of Upper Marlboro, Maryland [...] to 46 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with a scheme in which she and her conspirators offered to help financially vulnerable individuals save their homes from foreclosure, and instead defrauded homeowners and mortgage lenders, announced United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein.

According to Brooke's plea agreement:

• [Miachael K.] Lewis, Brooke, and co-conspirator Winston Thomas specifically targeted individuals who owned and had equity in their homes, but were facing foreclosure on their homes because of their inability to make monthly mortgage payments. The goal of the conspirators was to steal the homeowners’ equity out of their property by inducing the homeowners to sell their property to co-conspirator Earnest Lewis and converting sale proceeds to the use of the conspirators. Lewis and his co-conspirators did this by fraudulently representing to the homeowners that their “lease/buy-back program” would help the homeowners to keep their homes.

For the entire U.S. Attorney press release, see Final Conspirator Sentenced in Mortgage Fraud Scheme That Targeted Victims Through Local TV Ads (Defendants Ordered to Forfeit Over $2 Million).

For the earlier press releases announcing the sentencing of the three other conspirators, see:

• Winston Thomas: Senior Loan Officer Sentenced in Mortgage Fraud Scheme That Targeted Victims Through Local TV Ads,
• Michael K. Lewis: Leader of Mortgage Fraud Scheme Sentenced to 6 ½ Years in Prison - Targeted Victims with TV Ads,
• Earnest Lewis: Fourth Conspirator Pleads Guilty and Agrees to Forfeit $2 Million in Mortgage Fraud Scheme Targeting Victims with TV Ads.