Atlanta-Area Law Enforcement Probes Alleged Loan Modification Racket Accused Of Ripping Off Thousand$ From Financially Strapped Homeowners

In Atlanta, Georgia, WGCL-TV Channel 46 reports:

• A CBS Atlanta exclusive investigation has exposed a local company victimizing people who are trying to lower their home and car loans. CBS Atlanta has spoken with dozens of families who say they've been devastated by one man who's profiting off their misfortune.

• Fred Lee, an agent with Matrix Capital, has been served with a cease-and-desist order in Georgia and he is under investigation by the DeKalb County Police Department, but you'd never know it. His business is booming and the number of victims is growing.

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• Lee and his company, Matrix Capital, sell people the promise of a loan modification for $1,500 up front. He said he'll get you a lower interest rate, and while he's negotiating, you don't have to make a payment. You can live mortgage free. And people have believed him. He holds packed meetings across the Southeast, luring in new clients. [...] But his victims say they were never told their homes might go into foreclosure. And no one we spoke with had a successful modification through Lee.

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• DeKalb County Police now tell us they have also launched an investigation into Fredrick Lee's company. They started investigating Lee four months ago when 30 victims stepped forward to police to tell them the same story. "Essentially it is a theft, a fraud,"(1) Sgt. John Germano said.

• Germano told us Lee has been skirting the law, moving from state to state,(2) changing his company name, and preying on people in dire financial situations. In fact, CBS Atlanta News found out in 2007 the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance issued Lee a cease and desist letter ordering him to stop brokering mortgages in Georgia. "That company changed names, but continued to do business," Germano said.

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• If you have information on Fred Lee or Matrix Capital, please email [CBS Atlanta's Wendy Saltzman] at wendy.saltzman@cbsatlanta.com. You can also contact the DeKalb County Police Fraud Unit at 770-724-7704.

For the story, see Company Promises Lower Mortgage Payments (Lands Clients In Foreclosure).

(1) Georgia law enforcement authorities recently charged another alleged loan modification scammer with racketeering and theft by deception (see Self-Proclaimed Minister Faces Racketeering, Theft By Deception Charges For Allegedly Ripping Off Homeowners By Peddling Bogus Loan Modifications).

(2) According to the report, Lee was busted in Maryland doing the same thing. Another cease and desist order was issued there, but police say Lee has worked his way around the system and around the country making the same sales pitch. Reportedly, Lee also applied for and got a mortgage license in North Carolina in 2002, but his license was later revoked. Lee was said to have been sued over loans he brokered in Virginia.