Friday, February 10, 2012

Loan Mod Scam Artist Dodges Major Jail Time; Gets Year & Day For Ripping Off Homeowners Of Monthly Payments After Making 'Home-Saver' Promises

In Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Broward/Palm Beach New Times reports:
  • Marlon Baugh's federal court documents are practically a how-to guide on money laundering and mortgage fraud. The guy was a scam artist. He worked in Hallandale Beach for National Foreclosure Centers, a business that also went by the name Home Savers.


  • He helped run a scheme in which he promised to help families whose homes were in danger of foreclosure. Then he'd bail and let the homes go into foreclosure anyway -- not before taking $800 to $2,000 per month from his victims.


  • Federal mail-fraud penalties max out at 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine when financial institutions are involved. Late last week, though, Baugh switched his plea to guilty. His sentence? Just a year and a day in federal prison.


  • Baugh's scheme was two-pronged.

***

  • If you need to supplement your fraud income, you might want to consider writing a wildly overpriced ebook too: Since the investigation started several years ago, O'Donnell said Baugh "turned his live around the past four or five years" and has several books in the works. While we can't say for sure it's the same guy, there's a "Marlon Baugh" in the Fort Lauderdale area pimping himself online as a "nationally known mortgage expert" and selling a book of "insider load modification secrets" for 50 bucks.

For more, see Marlon Baugh Fakes Documents, Bails on Scam Mortgages, Gets a Single Year in Prison.