Miami Outfit Among Three Alleged Upfront Fee Loan Modification Rackets Shut Down By Feds In Civil Lawsuits

In Miami, Florida, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reports:

• Federal regulators have shut down three mortgage modification operations nationwide, including one in South Florida. The operations took millions in upfront fees while falsely telling homeowners they could get their loans reduced or stop their foreclosures, but then did little or nothing to help them, according to the FTC.



• Two of the owners of Truman Foreclosure Assistance of Miami were ordered, as part of a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, to pay $1.8 million toward consumer restitution. They also were banned from marketing, or helping others to market, mortgage modification or foreclosure relief services, the FTC said Thursday. Truman Foreclosure could not be reached for comment despite several attempts by phone.



• Federal officials allege Truman salespeople took $1,500 to $3,000 in upfront fees, a violation of federal law, and falsely claimed a 90 percent success rate and a full money back guarantee. In most cases, the company either didn't contact the homeowners lenders, refused to tell their clients what was going on with their modifications, or refused to grant refunds, according to court documents.



• Owners Eli Hertz and Benzion Jack Itzkowitz were prohibited, under the agreement, from sharing or using their customers' personal information and ordered to destroy those records. Richard Zafrani also was named in the action.Truman Foreclosure also did business as Truman Mitigation Servcies and Franklin Financial Group US.



• The two other settlements reached included: One for multiple companies based in California that marketed debt relief and mortgage modification services under a web site called Fedmortgageloans.com; and another for multiple defendents that federal regulators say set up false web sites that impersonated the government-backed site MakingHomeAffordable.gov, which helps distressed homeowners refinance their properties.

Source: FTC shuts down Miami mortgage loan modifiers.

See also Marketers Falsely Claimed to Be Affiliated with Federal Assistance Programs, Agency Alleges; Operators in One Case Required to Pay $1.8 Million for the Federal Trade Commission press release and links to related court documents.