Seven Texas Homeowners Face Felony Charges In Separate Cases For Allegedly Filing Serial Bankruptcy Petitions To Fraudulently Stall Foreclosure Sales Of Their Homes

In Sugar Land, Texas, Sugar Land Patch reports:

• A federal grand jury indicted [seven Texas homeowners, including] a Sugar Land woman and a Missouri City man for gaming the bankruptcy system.
  
  Leslie Nicole Breaux, 40, of Sugar Land and Carmen P. Turner, 55, of Missouri City are each charged with allegedly filing multiple bankruptcy cases to keep their homes. Breaux and Turner are accused of engaging in unrelated criminal activity.
  
  Each time they received a foreclosure notice Breaux and Turner would file a bankruptcy case to obtain an “automatic stay” from the courts, according to the indictments. The automatic stay prevented their creditors from initiating foreclosure proceedings.
  
  After filing the bankruptcy case Breaux and Turner would allegedly wouldn't file any other documents or submit a plan to pay off their debts to the court. After a 45-day period of no action their cases would be dismissed. When either one of them received another foreclosure notice the process would start all over again.
  
  They allegedly never made payments to their creditors, failed to disclose previous bankruptcy cases when filing subsequent ones and committed perjury by lying on court documents.
  
  Breaux and Turner are each charged with bankruptcy fraud and making false declarations under penalty of perjury. If convicted they could face up to five years in federal prison and a fine up to $25,000.

Source: Sugar Land Woman Indicted for Federal Bankruptcy Fraud.

For the U.S. Attorney (Houston) press release, see 7 Indicted for Bankruptcy Fraud:

• [T]he separate, but similar cases charge Hugo O. Parra, 43, of Cypress; Carmen P. Turner, 55, of Missouri City; LaTasha Riles, 47, of Huntsville; Leslie Nicole Breaux, 40, of Sugar Land; and Jermaine S. Thomas, 40, Angelina Gailey, 57, and Patrick Lee Gailey, 25, all of Houston.