CPA Gets 12 Months For Writing Fraudulent Letters To Dupe Banks Into Funding Equity Stripping Sale Leaseback Ripoffs

From the U.S. Department of Justice (Washington, D.C.):

• Barrington Coombs, 58, of Weston, Fla., was sentenced [] to serve a year and a day in prison for his role in a foreclosure rescue scheme that victimized desperate homeowners on the brink of losing their homes, the Justice Department announced.

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• According to the indictment and evidence presented at trial, two of Coombs’ accomplices, Lisa Wright and Cathy Saffer, operated Foreclosure Solution Specialists (FSS) from 2006 to 2009. FSS targeted homeowners facing foreclosure, advertising that it could assist those homeowners in remaining in their homes.
  
  When contacted by distressed homeowners seeking assistance, FSS misrepresented to those homeowners that their homes would be sold to investors. According to the indictment and evidence presented at trial , FSS also claimed that customers could remain in their homes after the sales and promised them an opportunity to repurchase the homes at a later date. Rather than selling the homes to legitimate investors, FSS designed sham sales to straw purchasers whom they paid to participate in the scheme.
  
  According to the indictment and evidence presented at trial, FSS paid Certified Public Accountant Barrington Coombs to write a fraudulent letter that vouched for the false information on various loan applications. Lenders relied on Coombs’ fraudulent letter in deciding to fund the loans.
  
  “The individual sentenced today lent his credibility as a professional accountant to a foreclosure scheme and, in doing so, caused lenders and consumers to suffer substantial losses,” said Stuart F. Delery, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division.

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• Coombs is the last member of the scheme to be sentenced. In November 2012, the two individuals who operated FSS were sentenced. Lisa Wright was sentenced to a 66 month term of imprisonment, while Cathy Saffer received a sentence of 60 months.
  
  Mortgage transactions completed by FSS drew equity out of the homes, which FSS’ principals pocketed for their own purposes. After doing so, FSS allowed the loans to go into foreclosure. Homeowners ultimately lost all of the equity in their homes, and most of the victims were forced to move out of their homes.

For the Justice Department press release, see Florida CPA Sentenced for Role in Foreclosure Scheme (Scheme Resulted in Many Victims Losing Their Homes).