Paralegal Gets Three Years For Role In Sale Leaseback Foreclosure Rescue Ripoff Targeting Financially Distressed Homeoners In Brooklyn, The Bronx

From the Office of the U.S. Attorney (New York City):

• PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that MARINA DUBIN, a real estate paralegal, was sentenced yesterday to two concurrent three-year prison sentences in connection with her involvement in a multimillion-dollar, sub-prime mortgage fraud scheme and another foreclosure rescue scheme.(1)

For the press release, see Paralegal Sentenced In Manhattan Federal Court To three Years In Prison For Role In Multi-Million Dollar Mortgage Fraud And Foreclosure Rescue Scheme.

(1) The foreclosure rescue scheme targeted homeowners whose homes, primarily in Brooklyn and Bronx, New York, were in foreclosure or facing foreclosure, by offering them a plan to "save" their homes. The proposed plan included the refinancing of the homeowners' debt with new, larger mortgages. Because the distressed homeowners typically had poor credit and were not eligible to refinance their debt at favorable terms, the defendants induced them to "sell" their homes to straw buyers, who would apply for loans to be used to "save" the home. The defendants promised that once the straw buyer obtained the mortgage, the proceeds would be used to pay off the homeowners' old debt and make one year's worth of payments on the new loans. The homeowners were told that, during that year, they could continue to live in their homes and work on improving their finances and credit. Finally, the defendants explained to the homeowners that, at the end of the year, the title to their homes would be returned to them by the straw buyers, with their credit repaired and their homes saved. There were also cases in which the defendants did not explain to homeowners that the plan to "save" their home required them to deed their house to a third party and did not obtain permission to deed the homes to others. In such cases, the defendants effectively stole the property of the homeowners by forging the homeowners' signatures on various documents that transferred the homes to straw buyers without the homeowners' knowledge.