Tampa-Area Foreclosure Rescue Operator Accused Of Peddling Bogus Sale-Leaseback Deals, Filing Phony Bankruptcy Petitions On Behalf Of Unwitting Homeowners Without Their Consent, Lying To Feds Pleads Guilty To Fraud Charges

In Tampa, Florida, The Tampa Tribune reports:

• Some people facing foreclosure and desperate to keep their homes have become targets for crooks.
  
  One accused scammer, David W. Griffin, [pleaded] guilty ... to bankruptcy fraud and false oath in a bankruptcy proceeding. The federal charges each carry up to five years in prison, though Griffin, 44, of Lutz, is likely to receive less time behind bars under the terms of a plea agreement on file in U.S. District Court.
  
  Federal authorities say Griffin defrauded homeowners facing foreclosure, filed bankruptcy petitions for them without consent and lied about the scheme to investigators.(1)
  
  Investigators interviewed scores of Griffin’s victims, many of whom had lost their homes or had bankruptcies filed without their knowledge or consent, according to prosecution court filings.
  
  After his arrest, according to the prosecution, Griffin continued to own and operate a real estate business. Griffin reported to the court’s probation office that the business purchased some foreclosure properties for rent or resale.
  
  A federal judge allowed Griffing to continue in that business so long as he didn’t represent to property owners that he could help them avoid foreclosure or suggest that he would return the property to the owners in the future. He was barred from involvement in any foreclosure rescue activity and bankruptcy proceedings.
  
  An indictment handed up in May charged Griffin with nine counts of bankruptcy fraud, two counts of lying under oath during a bankruptcy proceeding, one count of mail fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft in a scheme that spanned from 2012 to 2015.
  
  According to his signed plea agreement, Griffin operated a foreclosure rescue scheme through his companies, Bay2Bay Area Holding and Business Development Consultants, to obtain quitclaim or warranty deeds from distressed homeowners.
  
  Griffin found the homeowners through advertisements offering to rescue them from foreclosure.
  
  In return for the deeds, Griffin made false promises to rescue their homes by negotiating with creditors, back-leasing the property or falsely promising that the homeowner could repurchase the property,(2) federal authorities say.
  
  The victims paid Griffin rent and relied on his promise to help them save their homes, his plea agreement states.
  
  According to the indictment, he also schemed to prevent creditors and guarantors, including Fannie Mae and the Federal Housing Administration, from pursuing foreclosures against homeowners. To do so, he filed bogus bankruptcy petitions in the names of the homeowners without their knowledge or consent, prosecutors said.
  
  Griffin also admits in his plea agreement that he lied before the Office of the United States Trustee and the bankruptcy trustee. Under penalty of perjury, Griffin stated he had no knowledge of a bankruptcy filed through his company.

Source: Lutz man preyed on those facing foreclosure, prosecutors say.

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(1) See Final Report Of The Bankruptcy Foreclosure Scam Task Force for a discussion of the various other foreclosure rescue rackets that involve the abuse of the bankruptcy courts..

(2) For more on this type of foreclosure rescue ripoff, see:

• Criminal Prosecutions Of Sale Leaseback Peddlers In Equity Stripping Foreclosure Rescue Deals;
• Dreams Foreclosed: The Rampant Theft of Americans' Homes Through Equity-stripping Foreclosure 'Rescue' Scams (June 2005).