Man Arrested for Advance Loan Fee Scam

Allison Tussey —  April 2, 2015 — 5 Comments

Ivan Levy, 54, Boynton Beach, Florida, has been arrested for his alleged involvement in an advance fee loan scheme. Levy was charged with nine counts of collecting advanced fees as a loan broker, six counts of grand theft and three counts of petit theft.

Victims sought to renegotiate or refinance their loans through Levy’s websites, primarily credit-yogi.com or carpaymenthelpcenter.com. Levy purportedly called victims claiming to be a broker and falsely promised refinancing in exchange for an advance fee of $499. None of the victims obtained any financing from Levy. It is alleged Levy collected more than $300,000 from numerous victims who were already under financial duress and fearful of having their property repossessed.

During the course of the multi-agency investigation, the evidence revealed Levy operated under business names such as Regency Financial Services, Levy Fidelity Holdings or Fidelity Holdings. This case is being prosecuted by the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office. On January 26, 2015, Levy was also sued by the Federal Trade Commission for his role in this scheme.

The Florida Office of Financial Regulation (OFR) announced the arrest.

“Fighting financial crime is one of the OFR’s highest priorities,” said OFR Commissioner Drew J. Breakspear. “Ensuring Florida’s financial marketplace is a safe place for consumers and businesses means removing bad actors from the financial services industry.”

“I am proud of our investigative team and I thank our partners at the Boynton Beach Police Department who helped apprehend Levy and prevent further damage to the victims in this case,” said OFR Chief of Financial Investigations Robert Kynoch.

 

Allison Tussey

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5 responses to Man Arrested for Advance Loan Fee Scam

  1. christy O’Connor August 10, 2017 at 8:23 am

    CREDIT-YOGI is NOT Ivan’s website, the owner of that site is also a victim of Ivan Levy. He paid for advertising through our ad program on that site and then used their name to hide behind, giving an innocent and honest site a bad name. Credit-yogi.com immediately removed all ads and association with Mr. Levy after the 2nd complaint.

  2. The problem here is that Ivan Levy never was a licensed loan broker, You have to be licensed to charge a fee in Florida. This is why The Florida Office of Financial Regulation arrested him, this is why the FTC froze all of his asset etc., etc., So if you are truly a licensed lender then you can charge a fee for credit/appraisal, processing fees etc.The key here is that you need to be licensed!

  3. Actually, many lenders (such as brokers) charge up front fees, (generally for credit/appraisal) or in my case took a credit card number for the non-refundable processing fee. It was a HARP loan with my current lender. However, one of these days it is my hope that mortgage brokers will not be involved with the process anymore. Course they figure out other schemes like flipping, audition fixing, and assumption help companies.. What a racket !

  4. FHA Mortgage Lenders Florida April 5, 2015 at 1:46 pm

    Advanced loans are a huge scam!

  5. I am overcome with satisfaction and joy seeing that Ivan Levy caught by Florida finest !
    I guess Karma is a bitch.(LOL) I am one of the hundreds of persons who lost money and was harmed by Levy’s con games. A shout out to The FTC and Florida’s OFR you where awesome advocates, you helped apprehend Levy so he can’t harm anymore people I feel vindicated.

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