Head Of Maryland-Based Foreclosure Rescue Firm Gets 78 Months For Role In Peddling Bogus Equity Stripping Sale Leasebacks To Homeowners In Foreclosure

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

• U.S. District Judge Deborah K. Chasanow sentenced Michael K. Lewis, age 57, of Takoma Park, Maryland today to 78 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for conspiracy and bankruptcy fraud arising from a scheme in which he and his 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.

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• According to his plea agreement, [...] Lewis aired television advertisements that targeted financially vulnerable individuals, representing that he could improve their credit, save their homes from foreclosure and assist them with bankruptcy. [...] Lewis 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 Lewis and his co-conspirators was to steal the homeowners’ equity out of their property by inducing the homeowners to sell their property to 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. Lewis and Winston Thomas, a senior loan officer with a mortgage lender, told the homeowners that the “good credit” of Earnest Lewis would be used to temporarily refinance their homes, that they had to sign their homes over to Earnest Lewis and that they could repurchase the homes in roughly one year, or once they regained their financial footing. During the interim, they could remain in their homes only by paying inflated “rent” and fees by having their bank accounts directly debited to an account belonging to co-conspirator Cheryl Brooke’s company “In the House Technologies.” Brooke then made payments to Earnest Lewis and Thomas, with the remaining funds being used by Michael K. Lewis and Brooke for their personal benefit.(1)

For the entire U.S. Attorney press release, see Leader of Mortgage Fraud Scheme Sentenced to 6 ½ Years in Prison - Targeted Victims with TV Ads.

See also, WBAL-TV Channel 11: Lewis Gets 6.5 Years In Prison For Mortgage Fraud (Michael K. Lewis Convicted Of Defrauding People Out Of Homes).

(1) Earnest Lewis, age 52, of Takoma Park, Maryland, was sentenced to 54 months in prison, for his role in the scheme. Cheryl Brooke, age 52, of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, and Winston Thomas, age 43, of New Carrollton, Maryland pleaded guilty to their participation in the scheme and face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for the conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Michael K. Lewis Financial Diet