Disbarred Florida Attorney To Plead Guilty To Misleading Lenders; Swiping Loan Proceeds From Foreclosure Rescue Transactions

This is a story that even a yet-to-be criminally charged foreclosure rescue operator named ARO Properties Corp. (who has been referred to by Federal prosecutors as a co-conspirator in an equity stripping operation) was screwed over by a now-disbarred attorney it hired to oversee dozens of Central Florida real estate transactions in a so-called "Fresh Start Lease Back" home rescue program for homeowners facing foreclosure. The St. Petersburg Times reports:

• Disbarred Clearwater lawyer Graham Kligerman is scheduled to plead guilty this month to federal charges of stealing more than $1-million in a multistate equity-skimming fraud. [...] Two years ago, the Florida Supreme Court [in a separate, unrelated incident] disbarred Kligerman. In its complaint against him, the Florida Bar said he diverted money from one of his practice's trust accounts.

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• Now prosecutors say that at that time Kligerman was involved in a real estate scam with two co-conspirators from California. Federal prosecutors accuse Kligerman of diverting money from the fraudulent real estate transactions' trust accounts without the knowledge of his co-conspirators. Over two years, Kligerman acted as the closing agent on about 60 fraudulent real estate transactions in which banks were misled into making millions of dollars in loans, prosecutors say. And without the knowledge of two co-conspirators in California who hired him to oversee the transactions here, Kligerman diverted at least $1-million from trust accounts to himself and unwitting clients of his practice, authorities say.

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• [Kligerman's attorney] said his client has taken responsibility and is cooperating with prosecutors investigating the two co-conspirators [the foreclosure rescue operators]. [...] The federal complaint states that as part of the real estate scheme, the conspirators used false representations to obtain loans from banks and homes from people facing foreclosure. The main aim of the scheme, prosecutors said, was to strip the homes - most in Florida, a few in Georgia - of their equity.

• ARO [the California-based foreclosure rescue operator named as a co-conspirator] advertised a product called "Fresh Start Lease Backs." The company found homeowners who could not make payments on their mortgages but had a lot of equity in their homes, according to prosecutors. ARO then found investors to supposedly buy the homes, lease them back to the original homeowners and eventually sell the properties back to them.

• But banks were not told the real arrangement of the transactions, prosecutors said. The banks were not told that the down payments were being provided by the co-conspirators, not the loan applicants. The down payments that swayed the banks to make the loans came from the equity of the actual homes, prosecutors allege. Nor were the banks told that the buyers had no plans to live in the homes as their applications claimed. The buyers were unsophisticated investors with good credit who paid ARO $2,500 to be buyers, according to the complaint. They unwittingly submitted fraudulent loan applications.

Kligerman's plea agreement requires him to pay a yet-to-be determined amount of restitution to at least two loan processors, four banks, 53 homeowners and 18 unwitting straw buyers. For more, see Disbarred lawyer to plead guilty to fraud (Prosecutors say Graham Kligerman misled banks into making millions of dollars in loans).

For story update, see Former Lawyer Cuts Plea Deal In Real Estate Scam (Disbarred Clearwater lawyer Graham Kligerman pleaded guilty on Tuesday (12-17-07) to conspiracy and wire fraud, admitting he stole millions in a real estate scheme).

Go here for a description of ARO's Fresh Start Lease Backs program (no longer available online).

To view the relevant federal court documents in this case:

• Criminal Complaint (Information) - U.S. v. Kligerman, or

• (PACER registration required) go here for the Criminal Complaint (Information) filed by prosecutors (13 pages - $1.04), and here for the Plea Agreement (22 pages - $1.76; the admitted facts of the scheme are found at paragraph B-9, pages 19-21).

For more on Graham Kligerman, see:

• Disbarred Florida Attorney Gets 10 Years For His Part In Alleged Sale Leaseback, Foreclosure Rescue Scam That Defrauded 50+ Homeowners,
• Disbarment yields a case of frustration (A Largo woman must start her case from scratch after hiring a lawyer who had been facing misconduct charges) (St. Petersburg Times),
• Florida Supreme Court Disbarment.

For more on equity stripping scams, generally, see DREAMS FORECLOSED: The Rampant Theft of Americans' Homes Through Equity-stripping Foreclosure 'Rescue' Scams (4.61 MB approx.).

Disbarred Florida Attorney Gets 10 Years For His Part In Alleged Sale Leaseback, Foreclosure Rescue Scam That Defrauded 50+ Homeowners

In Tampa, Florida, WTSP-TV Channel 10 reports:

• A federal judge has sentenced a disbarred lawyer to ten years in prison on his guilty plea to a mortgage scheme that stole the equity from more than 50 homeowners. Graham Daniel Kligerman, 34, of Clearwater, was also ordered to pay $6.5 million in restitution. The U.S. Attorney's office said Kligerman was part of a mortgage foreclosure rescue scheme that defrauded more than 50 homeowners.

For more, see Disbarred lawyer sentenced in mortgage fraud.

See also:

• U.S. Attorney (Tampa, Florida) Press Release: Clearwater Man Sentenced To Ten Years For Mortgage Fraud,
• The Tampa Tribune: Clearwater Lawyer Gets 10 Years For Real Estate Scam,
• St. Petersburg Times: Disbarred Clearwater lawyer gets 10 years in Florida mortgage scheme,
• Original Criminal Complaint - U.S. v. Kligerman,
• Go here for more on Graham Kligerman.

Go here for criminal prosecutions of foreclosure rescue operators and home equity scammers.

For more on equity stripping scams, generally, see DREAMS FORECLOSED: The Rampant Theft of Americans' Homes Through Equity-stripping Foreclosure 'Rescue' Scams (4.61 MB approx.).

Recent Criminal Prosecutions Of Florida Foreclosure Rescue Scams

The Bradenton Herald reports on three recent criminal prosecutions of foreclosure rescue scams in Central Florida - two completed successfully and one currently pending:

• A federal [...] jury in Tampa found five Tampa-area residents guilty in 2007 of stealing more than $2 million in equity from homeowners in central and South Florida. [...] The scheme's principals - Kamal Moumneh; his brother, Ramzy Moumneh; and Chuong Dam, all of Tampa - were sentenced to between one and five years in prison. Four others who were convicted or pleaded guilty in the scheme received lesser sentences.

• Tampa Police arrested Carmen Maria Oliveri, 48, of Seffner, on felony grand theft and organized fraud charges in June 2007. She and her husband, Jose, are accused of scheming to defraud a Tampa homeowner by not telling him that he was signing over his home as part of a foreclosure rescue transaction, then selling the house without his knowledge. Carmen Oliveri is awaiting trial but Jose Oliveri remains a fugitive, court records show. They were principals in 4 Solutions Inc., a defunct Tampa-based foreclosure consulting firm [...].

• Graham Kligerman, a disbarred Clearwater attorney, pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges in December for his part in an $11 million scheme. He and several unindicted co-conspirators, through a program called "Fresh Start Leaseback" that ARO Properties Corp. offered on the Internet, targeted homeowners who had substantial equity but were facing foreclosure, prosecutors said. Go here for more on Graham Kligerman.

For more, see Recent foreclosure scam cases in Florida.

Go here for other criminal prosecutions of foreclosure rescue operators.