Monday, January 05, 2009

Victim Borrowers Allowed To Testify

Philip Coon, EVP of Coast Bank of Florida, and John Miller, President of American Mortgage Link, were charged for their roles in a fee splitting scheme.  As previously reported by Mortgage Fraud Blog, the scenario involved undisclosed, additional fees charged to Borrowers at closing.  The fees were sometimes ultimately paid by Coast of Bank of Florida, the Borrowers and other, and were then split between Coon and MIller.  During the pendency of the case, the Borrowers, who were not parties to the criminal case or mentioned in the charging document, sought to testify as victims recognized by the Crime Victims Rights Act ("CRVA") prior to the Judge’s consideration of Coon‘s guilty plea. The CRVA, among other things, gives victims of a crime the opportunity to be heard in the pending case in which they were a victim.  The Judge denied the Borrowers’ request to testify concluding that they did not meet the requisite elements of a “victim” because the pending case dealt with losses to the bank, not the borrowers, and therefore, the Bank, not the Borrowers was the victim of the offense charged in the indictment.

The Borrowers petitioned the court for a writ of mandamus asking the appellate court to declare them “victims”. The appellate court utimately agreed with the Borrowers and granted their writ concluding that they were “victims” because they were responsible for paying closing costs in which the unlawful fees were hidden.

mortgage fraud

1. Our economy is not in a good condition that’s why people must learn how to spend wisely. With this situation people often ran for financial options for them to seek assistance on their financial problem. Financial option is good because it could really help us in times of emergency. While many in the nation strive to repair credit following the mortgage crisis, lower prices in the West are pushing home sales up. Seems to me like the market is beginning to correct itself. It’s good old-fashioned supply and demand. Home sales went up 13 percent in the West. In the same region, home prices dropped 26 percent. It reminds me of the economics class I took freshman year in college. Foreclosures and defaulted mortgages created a bigger supply of homes for sales. Then the prices just needed to drop to a point that met demand. Well, that happened in the West, but in the United States overall home sales are still down about 11 percent compared to last year. Looks like the East is a little slow to meet the demand curve. But I’m sure they’ll get there.

   Posted by Lance S  on  01/05  at  07:35 PM