California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. issued a consumer alert warning California homeowners to avoid individuals and businesses that charge up up-front fees for foreclosure relief services in light of a just-enacted state law that makes this “abusive practice” subject to prosecution.

“Over the past two years, unscrupulous attorneys and real estate brokers have abused their trusted roles and exploited desperate homeowners seeking to avoid foreclosure,” Brown said.

More than $1,370,000 in civil penalties and restitution has been gained for consumers as a result of two mortgage fraud lawsuits filed earlier this year by the Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard.

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In March 2009, Goddard filed a lawsuit on behalf of his office and the Arizona Department of Financial Institutions against an alleged foreclosure rescue operation believed to have defrauded some 270

Cheryl Brooke, 52, Upper Marlboro, Maryland, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Deborah K. Chasanow to 46 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with a scheme in which she and her conspirators offered to help financially vulnerable individuals save their homes from foreclosure, and instead defrauded homeowners and mortgage lenders. Judge Chasanow also

Michael K. Lewis, 57, Takoma Park, Maryland, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Deborah K. Chasanow to 78 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for conspiracy and bankruptcy fraud arising from a scheme in which he and his conspirators offered to help financially vulnerable individuals save their homes from foreclosure, and instead defrauded homeowners and mortgage lenders. Continue Reading...

Rene Alvarez, 39, San Jose, California, was arrested by investigators with the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office on charges that he defrauded hundreds of homeowners, whose homes were in foreclosure, in a wide-ranging loan modification scam. There is an outstanding arrest warrant on the same charges for his cohort, 34-year old Mariano Ortega,

John T. Willard, Hamilton, Ohio, was suspended from the practice of law by the Supreme Court of Ohio for one year, with the final six months of that term stayed, for professional misconduct arising from Willard‘s participation in a “foreclosure rescue” business in which he accepted client referrals and shared legal fees with non-attorneys who engaged in the unlicensed practice of