Los Angeles White Collar Crime - Mortgage Modification Fraud

Los Angeles white collar crime is making a comeback, and Los Angeles white collar crime attorneys are gearing up for quite a bit of work.  The recent economic downturn has left many California homeowners in particularly precarious financial positions.  Many people who have recently become unemployed are beginning to have problems paying their mortgages every month.  Increasingly, home loan modification has become a popular practice as homeowners are looking for ways to avoid foreclosure.  And where there is desperation, there are thieves waiting to take advantage of these homeowners’ ignorance.  In increasingly organized fashion, people posing as home loan modification experts are contacting homeowners close to default and offering to help them modify their existing home loans.  Make no mistake:  only the bank that issued your home loan has the authority to change its terms.  If anyone approaches you with a home loan modification scheme, make sure to contact your lender immediately to verify the offer’s validity. 

Unfortunately, Hesperia resident Maricela Castellanos did not know that.  When Castellanos’ mortgage fell into default in 2007, she received a letter that appeared to be from her lender, offering her the chance to enroll in a free program to modify the terms of her loan.  She immediately signed up and days later received a phone call from a man who told her she and her husband had been approved for a more affordable loan and was asked to send in a mortgage payment in the form of a either a cashier’s check or a money order to a Post Office box in North Hills –not to her lender.  In fact, she sent several payments to that same Post Office box over the next few months. 

It was only when Castellanos received a call from her mortgage lender that she realized something was seriously wrong.  Los Angeles law enforcement contacted her later and she learned that she had been part of a mortgage modification fraud that eventually topped $1 million.  Investigators on the case traced several bank accounts and 1-800 numbers to Jose Perez and Isuara Hernandez, a married couple who are believed to have fled to Mexico.  While five of Perez and Hernandez’s associates have pled guilty to several counts of grand theft, conspiracy and money-laundering, Perez and Hernandez have so far eluded capture. 

Crime does not need to be violent or even physical in nature to land you in jail.  Fraud and theft on this scale, even when participants willingly hand over their money, can still be classified as a felony offense.  In California, any theft of more than $400 in value is considered grand theft. 

While each case is different, a minimum jail sentence for a grand theft conviction is 16 months, in addition to restitution, fines and any probation or parole that may also be handed down as punishment.  If you have been charged with a white collar crime such as fraud or even grand theft, call the attorneys at Stephen G. Rodriguez & Associates today to begin preparing your defense.