Heritage Homes Group, Inc., a Pennsylvania-based home builder that offers home financing, has settled Federal Trade Commission charges that it deceived consumers by advertising low-cost mortgages while hiding fees and not disclosing vital information about the true cost of the mortgages.
Archives For Regulatory Violations
The Federal Housing Administration published a Mortgagee Letter reminding lenders participating in the agency’s Home Equity Conversion Mortgage Program to make certain senior borrowers are fully informed of all their options when applying for reverse mortgages.
Steven Pitchersky, 65, Rancho Mirage, California, was sentenced to 51 months in prison for a scheme to defraud Ally Bank that resulted in losses to the bank of approximately $5.3 million. Pitchersky, who pleaded guilty to wire fraud on September 23, 2013, operated Nationwide Mortgage Concepts, a California mortgage lender.
Reunion Mortgage, Inc. and its former co-owners, David Thayer, and R. Kent Harvey, have agreed to pay $1.04 million to settle allegations that the company submitted false claims to the Federal Housing Administration in violation of the False Claims Act, 31 U.S.C. §§ 3729-33.
Gary Alan Rickenbach, 56, Little Rock, Arkansas, has been indicted and charged with one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, misapplication of bank monies, making false entries to deceive the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, obstructing an OCC examination and money laundering.
Randy Alan Carpenter, 56, Spruce Pine, North Carolina, an attorney, engineer and land surveyor, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Graham Mullen to 27 months in prison for making false statements on his tax returns.
Poppi Metaxas, 60, Hillsborough, California, the former chief executive officer and president of Gateway Bank FSB, with bank fraud, bank fraud conspiracy, and perjury.
Darryl Burke, 50, and Vicki Garland, 50, both of Delray Beach, Florida, were convicted by a federal jury of bank fraud and wire fraud conspiracy, after a two and half week trial before U.S. District Judge James I. Cohn.
Jana DeWitt and Kenneth Westfall, licensed real estate agents operating in Colorado Springs, Colorado, have paid the United States $93,500 in civil penalties to settle allegations that they engaged in deceptive conduct that violated the Financial Institutions Reform Recovery and Enforcement Act (FIREEA).
Dwight A. Etheridge, 49, Chesapeake, Virginia, was sentenced to 50 months in prison, followed by five years of supervised release, for conspiracy to commit bank fraud, bank fraud, false statements to a financial institution, and aiding and abetting misapplication of bank funds.