Fugitive Duo Charged In C. Florida Equity Snatching Foreclosure Rescue Scam Nabbed In South America; Suspects On Secret Service Int'l Most Wanted List

In Tampa, Florida, The Tampa Tribune reports:

• The owners of a Tampa company have been arrested in Peru in a scheme to defraud nearly 300 Florida homeowners, most of them Hispanic, with offers to help them avoid foreclosure. Mario Quiroz and Jose Oliveri, who owned Valrico-based 4 Solutions, were taken into custody late last week, said John Joyce, special agent in charge of the Secret Service's Tampa field office. They disappeared two years ago as a mortgage fraud investigation expanded.(1)

• "These guys were on our international most-wanted list, and some of our agents in Peru were contacted with information as to their whereabouts," Joyce said. The U.S. government is tying to extradite them to face charges of wire fraud, conspiracy, mail fraud and money laundering, Joyce said. The company, he said, carried out an elaborate scheme targeting homeowners in the Tampa area, Orlando and south Florida.

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• Using the Internet, radio and television, the company marketed a method to avoid home foreclosures. Financially strapped homeowners thought they were refinancing or signing over rights to their homes temporarily. The company then sold the homes without the homeowner's knowledge, the Secret Service said. Twelve financial institutions lost a total of $8 million, Joyce said.

• In some cases, homeowners were told they were refinancing their homes. In other cases, the company agreed to make the mortgage payments for up to two years, stopping the foreclosure and give the homeowner time to get back on their feet. Homeowners say they were told they would get their houses back. Instead, the company put the homes in the names of others - often the wife of one of the owners – and took out large mortgages, stripping the home of its equity. The company then stopped paying the mortgage and let the homes fall into foreclosure.

For more, see Tampa suspects in statewide mortgage fraud arrested in Peru.

See also, St. Petersburg Times: Tampa mortgage fraud suspects arrested in Peru.

For the October 2, 2008 indictment, see U.S. v. Quiroz, Oliveri.

Go here for other stories on this alleged foreclosure rescue racket.

(1) Oliveri's wife, Carmen Maria Oliveri, was arrested by Tampa police in June 2007 on charges of grand theft of $100,000 or more and organized fraud over $50,000. equity stripping