NH Feds Charge Real Estate Agent In Alleged Scam That Targeted Homeowners Facing Foreclosure With Sale Leaseback, Equity Stripping Ripoffs

In Concord, New Hampshire, the Nashua Telegraph reports:

• A Nashua real estate agent is charged with swindling distressed homeowners and mortgage lenders with a home refinancing scam. Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Gunnison filed a charge of aiding and abetting mail fraud against Richard Winefield, 32, of 6 Short Ave., Nashua, on Feb. 8.

• The charge states that Winefield joined in the scheme "already in progress" in 2006, but doesn't name any alleged co-conspirators, and Gunnison could not be reached for comment this week. Winefield's lawyer, Peter McGrath of Concord, did not return a call from the Telegraph Monday, and Winefield himself declined to comment on the case. A waiver of indictment and plea hearing has been set for March 1, suggesting that Winefield has already struck a plea deal.

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• The scam involved finding distressed homeowners, and offering to help them avoid foreclosure by having the homeowners sign over their properties to one of Winefield's companies, which would then rent the house to the homeowner for two years. The homeowner would then have the option to buy back the property, at a pre-arranged price, typically around 30 percent over what it would cost to pay off the homeowner's mortgage, the charge states.

• "In reality, after taking title to the homes of the distressed homeowners, the scheme participants paid off the existing mortgages by obtaining new, usually significantly larger, mortgage loans on the properties, and they immediately converted the additional borrowed money to their own use," Gunnison wrote. "This stripped most or all of the available equity from the properties and left the properties encumbered with larger mortgages."

• The homeowner's rental payments went toward payments on the new, bigger loans, the charge states. To get those larger loans, Winefield and his partners arranged "sham transactions" and straw buyers, who included relatives, friends and strangers, who posed as buyers of the properties, the charge states.

• The straw buyers purported to pay princely sums for the properties, and Winefield arranged appraisals to match the inflated prices, the charge states. "The scheme participants falsely and fraudulently prepared mortgage applications identifying the straws as borrowers, and submitted the applications to lenders chosen by the scheme participants," the charge states.

• The straw buyers were assured they would never need to pay off the mortgages, despite being named as the borrower, the charge states, and the loan applications were replete with false information. Gunnison charges that Winefield personally solicited homeowners, determined sales prices for the sham sales, attended closings and at times acted himself as a straw buyer.(1)

For the story, see Nashua man charged in foreclosure finance scam.

For the criminal complaint, see U.S. v. Winefield.

(1) See Criminal Prosecutions Of Sale Leaseback Peddlers In Equity Stripping Foreclosure Rescue Deals for other incidents that led to criminal prosecutions in sale leaseback deals.