More Publicity For Southeatern Pennsylvania Foreclosure Rescue Operator

In Delaware County, Pennsylvania, The Delaware County Daily Times reports:

• Gennaro Rauso once described himself to the Daily Times as a “self-taught paralegal.” Much of that education occurred at Graterford Prison while serving a nine-year drug sentence. Now, the 46-year-old former owner of the real estate management company D&B Property Investors finds himself in more hot water, this time with the feds. The U.S. Attorney Zane David Memeger on June 24 filed an information charging Rauso, a former resident of Delaware County, with several mortgage fraud-related offenses.(1)

• The information alleges Rauso took advantage of desperate homeowners with the promise of staying in, or saving, their homes, when in fact he was using them to defraud the mortgage holders. Similar complaints about Rauso have been relayed to authorities in Delaware County for several years, though charges were never filed.

• “He walks right up to the (legal) line and doesn’t cross it,” is how county Detective Thomas Worrilow described Rauso’s dealing in a 2008 interview.(2) Federal prosecutors and officials from the FBI, IRS and departments of Treasury and Housing and Urban Development believe he has taken that extra step.

• According to the information, between January 2005 and December 2008, Rauso carried out a scheme to defraud mortgage companies out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in mortgage payments. He allegedly sought out homeowners who were facing immediate foreclosure on their homes and offered to help them avoid foreclosure. In a flier mailed to these homeowners, Rauso claimed he could help them fight the mortgage companies while simultaneously helping them rebuild their credit so they could keep their home.

For more, see Feds target real estate company owner.

For an earlier post on Rauso, see Philly Feds: F'clsure Rescue Operator In Sale Leaseback, Rent Skimming Scam Stalled Lenders w/ Bogus Bankrptcy Filings, Stiffed IRS On Illegal Profits.

(1) The full set of charges Rauso faces are:

• 18 U.S.C. §§ 1341 (mail fraud - 1 count),
• 18 U.S.C. § 157 (bankruptcy fraud - 1 count),
• 18 U.S.C. § 1029(a)(5) (access device fraud - five counts),
• 12 U.S.C. § 1709-2 (equity skimming, aka rent skimming, - 4 counts),
• 18 U.S.C. § 1344 (bank fraud - 1 count),
• 26 U.S.C. § 7203 (failure to file federal income tax returns - 4 counts),
• 26 U.S.C. § 7206(1) (filing a materially false federal income tax return - 1 count),
• 18 U.S.C. § 2 (aiding and abetting),
• Notice of forfeiture.

(2) In light of the recent federal charges, Detective Worrilow may want to reconsider his position on whether Rauso crosses the legal line when allegedly ripping off homeowners.