Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Illinois Foreclosure Rescue Company Fined and Shut Down

Following a lawsuit brought by Illinois Cook County State’s Attorney Richard Devine, a fraudulent mortgage lending company has been fined $250,000 and banned from doing business in Illinois.

Bold Funding, Inc. and its owner-operator, Bruce Wagner, were found to have violated Illinois law by falsely promising to secure private funding for loans to save the homes of persons who were in foreclosure for a fee ranging from $300 to $6,670.

In Civil Court on April 18, 2006, Judge Julia Nowicki ordered Bold Funding and Bruce Wagner to refund $115,858 in application fees to 74 former customers who never received any funding from the Defendants. Bold Funding and Bruce Wagner were also fined $250,000, and the Defendants were permanently banned from providing any services in Illinois related to residential mortgage loans.

“The taking of monies from vulnerable homeowners in foreclosure under false pretenses is reprehensibleX,” Devine said. ”Any company which purports to help homeowners who are in foreclosure must follow the law and fulfill its promises to assist its customers.”

In 2004, Bold Funding maintained its “headquarters” at a commercial post office box at 40 E. Chicago Ave., Chicago, Illinois. Bold Funding also operated a website at http://www.boldfunding.com and sponsored hundreds of commercials on local and out-of-state radio stations. On its website and radio commercials, Bold Funding claimed that it could save homes from foreclosure even after a Sheriff s sale. Homeowners in foreclosure sent thousands of dollars to Bold Funding under the belief that Bold Funding would secure funding to refinance their mortgages and save their homes. The Defendants did not arrange or provide any funding. Neither Bold Funding nor Bruce Wagner ever possessed an Illinois residential mortgage broker’s or lender’s license.

On November 10, 2004, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office Consumer Fraud Division filed its lawsuit against Bold Funding and Bruce Wagner charging the Defendants with violating the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act. This lawsuit was initiated after the State’s Attorney’s Office received numerous complaints from citizens regarding Bold Funding. Bold Funding and Bruce Wagner could not identify anyone who actually received any funding through the efforts of the Defendants. The court heard testimony from one victim who testified that she lost her home, and another victim who testified that he had to file for bankruptcy to save his home after the Defendants failed to obtain funding for him.

Consumers with questions or complaints about other foreclosure “rescue” businesses may contact the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, Consumer Fraud Division, at (312) 603-8700, or online at www.statesattorney.org.

mortgage fraud

1. I remember hearing about the collapse of Bold Funding on the news when it all went down in 2004. It was probably the largest, most sophisticated foreclosure scam I’ve ever heard about, before or since then. $116,000 or so in refunds doesn’t begin to compensate all of the victims. And now the owner, it seems, fled to another state and is trying to start his own talk show!

   Posted by  on  01/23  at  03:34 PM

2. is the “Bruce Wagner” that went to prison in Virginia a few years ago for defrauding investors and mortgage holders for whom he was collecting payments and forwarding those payments to them, less a collection fee?  Star Mortgage or a firm with a similar title was the company he ran.

   Posted by  on  08/16  at  12:23 PM

3. Regarding my earlier comment about the Bruce Wagner of Star Mortgage in VA who went to jail, I should have stated that the charges were embezzlement and misuse of funds, in the amount of $87,000.  At his bankruptcy hearing, when lawyers for several creditors questioned him about other sources of money and were those in his name, so that those could be attached as part payment for the money owed-- he took the Fifth Amendment!

   Sorry that I wasn’t clearer in my first posted comment; I still wonder if this Bruce Wagner is the other Bruce Wagner of Virginia

   Posted by  on  08/16  at  01:03 PM