Elderly Breast Cancer Victim Speaks Out On Since-Shuttered Loan Modification Racket That Fleeced Her Out Of $2,100+ & Duped Her To Stop Making Mortgage Payments

In Round Rock, Texas, KXAN-TV Channel 21 reports:

• Clara Howerton, 72, has lived in her house in Round Rock for 26 years. “I just fell in love with it. It was just the kind of home I liked. I’ve been very comfortable here for all the years,” said Howerton.
  
  The last few years haven’t been easy though. Breast cancer forced her to quit her job and she has been struggling to pay the bills ever since. A call came in from Legal Educators USA in Beverly Hills offering Howerton a solution to her financial problems. The company told her they could lower her monthly mortgage payments and her interest rate for a small fee.
  
  As told, she had to act fast and soon wrote the company three checks, each more than $700 and agreed to stop making her regular mortgage payment.
  
  “I thought this is a godsend. This is really going to help me get on my feet and get my house taken care of.”
  
  Six months went by and letters from the bank were piling up. $6,000 behind on her payment and close to losing her home, she finally heard back from the person in charge at Legal Educators USA, Veronica Sesma.
  
  “She told me I want you to quit worrying about this, I want you to settle down, you just need to be patient.” Howerton trusted the woman on the other line. “I guess I just got suckered, really suckered.”
  
  ***
  KXAN discovered dozens of complaints across the country and multiple variations of Sesma’s company. To avoid detection, it appears Sesma renames the company repeatedly to approach new, unsuspecting homeowners. After a recent nation-wide investigation, the Federal Trade Commission finally shut her down this fall, revealing the total amount authorities believe she took from consumers over several years tallied up to nearly $900,000.

For the story, see Deceptive practices in home mortgages target the vulnerable.