It was announced today that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have signed an agreement to coordinate efforts to protect consumers in an effort to avoid duplication of federal law enforcement and regulatory efforts. The memorandum of the two agencies’ understand can be viewed here. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street …
Yesterday, an Ohio resident was indicted for allegedly engaging in a fraud scheme that promised to fund more than $500 million in mortgage loans to around 20 churches and a dozen small businesses across the country. The man, Jamal Lawson, fraudulently obtained more than $300,000 in advance fees that he used for personal expenses instead …
Dr. Ira Klein, a physician in Houston, Texas, was sentenced in 2007 to federal prison for defrauding insurance companies of more than $10 million. He, like so many criminals before him, has appeared in federal court again for a re-sentencing hearing. A federal jury convicted Klein in November 2006 of 18 counts of mail fraud …
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced they are requiring “U.S. Homeowners Relief” defendants to pay millions in their settlement along with banning them from the debt and mortgage relief business. The FTC had charged six defendants (that have agreed to settle) in the participation of a fraudulent mortgage modifications and foreclosure relief scheme. The settlement …
Last week a man whom operated a foreclosure-rescue scam agreed to plead guilty after collecting $1.6 million from 1,100 distressed homeowners. The man, Frederic Alan Gladle, of Austin, Texas, ran his scam in Los Angeles and elsewhere where he falsely promised the owners of more than a thousand distressed properties that they could indefinitely postpone …
A Massachusetts man was sentenced last week to 8.5 years in prison for a 20-year Ponzi scheme and ordered to pay over $17 million in recitation to over 200 victims. Richard Elkinson was sentenced to 102 months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release and ordered to pay $17 million in …
Certified public accountant (CPA) and alleged outside auditor for Provident Capital Indemnity (PCI), Jorge Luis Castillo, plead guilty last week for his role in a $670 million fraud scheme effecting victims across the country and abroad. Castillo plead guilty to conspiring to commit mail and wire fraud, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years …
Earlier this month word broke when a complaint was issued against four Arizona LLCs and 11 Arizonians that Arizona telemarketers had defrauded almost 5,000 people out of over $6.3 million. These criminals conducted a scam that used victims’ credit-card limits to determine how much to charge them in setting up their very own “web mall” …
Mid-trial a mother and daughter fraudster team, along with an accomplice from Las Vegas, pleaded guilty to participating in a mortgage fraud scheme that lead to more than $1.9 million in mortgage loan losses to lenders. Mother, Patricia Smith, pleaded guilty to Counts Four and Five of the Superseding Indictment, which charged her with wire …
KEL law firm, formally Kaufman, Englett & Lynd, has been forced to resign from the Better Business Bureau (BBB) of Central Florida. The resignation of this Orlando based law firm marks “the first area law firm to be ousted in the business-rating agency’s 27-year history.” Apparently the BBB has complained that over the past year …