Foreclosure Rescue Sale Leaseback Racket That Drained Equity From Unwitting Victims' Homes Among Scams California Man Pleads Guilty To

From the Office of the U.S. Attorney (Los Angeles, California):

• A Downey man has agreed to plead guilty to federal fraud and money laundering charges, admitting that he ran two fraudulent operations – a Ponzi scheme that took in $30 million from more than 300 victims and a mortgage fraud scheme that preyed on homeowners by stealing the equity from their homes and secretly taking title to their properties. Juan Rangel, 46, who is currently in federal custody, signed a plea agreement that was filed late Friday in United States District Court.

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• In the plea agreement, Rangel [] admitted that he and others operated a mortgage fraud scheme that targeted Latino homeowners at risk of losing their homes by offering them help to avoid foreclosure.

• Rather than assisting the distressed homeowners, however, Rangel took titles to their homes and drained the remaining equity out of the properties. As part of this scheme, Rangel arranged to sell the homeowners’ properties, usually without their knowledge, to third-party straw buyers. He then applied for loans in the straw buyers’ names related to these supposed purchases, and used a variety of falsified documents to ensure that the fraudulent loans were approved. Rangel admitted that the scheme caused mortgage lenders to fund more than $10 million in fraudulent loans.

For the U.S. Attorney press release, see Downey Man Agrees To Plead Guilty In Multi-Million Dollar Fraud That Bilked Investors And Homeowners (Juan Rangel Agrees to Serve 15-Year Sentence for Targeting Spanish-Speaking Victims and Stealing Their Savings and Titles to their Homes).