Struggling Homeowners Accuse Soon-To-Be Suspended & Recently Foreclosed Upon Attorney Of Fleeing With Fees After Promising Loan Modification Help

In Phoenix, Arizona, KPHO-TV Channel 5 reports:

• Fernando Sanchez was one of the [dozens of people 5 Investigates reportedly found victimized by scam loan modification companies]. He was barely making ends meet when he heard about an opportunity to reduce his mortgage, from $2,300 per month to $900 per month. "They told me to go to this meeting to see what it was about … and these people allegedly have an attorney and a translator," he said. Sanchez paid $1,000 to sit in a garage in a residential neighborhood set up with tables and chairs for the meeting. The attorney charged $6,000 for the loan modification.

• Dora Fuentes had already lost her home when she signed up to work with the same lawyer. "He never told us that we were in foreclosure or that the house was no longer ours," she said. According to documents Fuentes provided, the lawyer took her money anyway. She lost her house, and the lawyer disappeared.(1)(2)

For more, see Expert: Loan Mod Scams Common (Immigrants Seem Especially Vulnerable, Mortgage Broker Says).

(1) The story states that Robert Jung, the attorney who offered to modify Sanchez and Fuentes' loans, was working with a company known as "Stop Foreclosure Wizard." His law license is set to be suspended Jan. 2, according to the story [Jung's history available on the Arizona Bar website indicates the suspension date is January 4]. Jung did not return numerous phone calls, and when 5 Investigates tried to visit the address listed in its corporate records, they discovered Todd Carpenter's home. According to the story, Carpenter said he recently purchased the home at a foreclosure auction, and for weeks, he wondered why non-English-speaking families would show up looking for Jung. "Finally, I said, 'What are you looking for him for?'" Carpenter said. "And they said, 'Well, we paid him to modify our loan. And I told them I said I don't think you're going to get your loan modified because (Jung) lost this house."

(2) The victims in this story might want to check out the Client Protection Fund of the State Bar of Arizona to see if they can qualify to recover any of their losses from the Fund as a result of the alleged dishonest screwing over by this reportedly not-yet-suspended attorney.

For those victimized by dishonest attorneys in other states and Canada, see:

• Directory Of Lawyers' Funds For Client Protection (courtesy of the American Bar Association);
• Check the USA Client Protection Funds Map;
• Check the Canada Client Protection Funds Map.