Archives For Maine

Woman Sentenced for Making False Statements to a Lending Business

Stephanie Abbott —  November 30, 2023 — Leave a comment

Carol Bragdon, 50, Brewer, Maine, was sentenced today to wire fraud and making false statements to a mortgage lending business.

According to court records, between November 2020 and April 2021, Bragdon provided false statements and representations to a residential mortgage lender for the purpose of obtaining a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) backed loan. She used Google email accounts to communicate with the lender and the VA and to transmit documentation as part of the scheme. The emails were transmitted from Maine and through another state.

Bragdon was also sentenced for making a false statement to a licensed firearms dealer in a separate case.

In August 2021, Bragdon purchased five firearms at Maine Military Supply in Brewer, falsely stating that she was the actual purchaser of the firearms. She was accompanied by an individual who directed her to specific firearms and who was later arrested with one of the firearms, a Walther model PK380 .380 caliber pistol. That individual was prohibited from purchasing a firearm under federal law.

The VA Office of Inspector General and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigated the cases.

STRAW PURCHASING: A straw purchase is an illegal firearm purchase where the actual buyer of the gun, being unable to pass the required federal background check or desiring to not have his or her name associated with the transaction, uses a proxy buyer who can pass the required background check to purchase the firearm for him/her.

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Woman Faces Up to 30 Years for Making False Statements to a Lending Business

Stephanie Abbott —  April 13, 2023 — Leave a comment

Carol Bragdon, 49, Bangor, Maine, pleaded guilty today to wire fraud and making false statements to a mortgage lending business. She also pleaded guilty to a separate charge of making a false statement to a licensed firearms dealer.

According to court records, between November 2020 and April 2021, Bragdon, provided false statements and representations to a residential mortgage lender for the purpose of obtaining a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) backed loan. She used Google email accounts to communicate with the lender and the VA and to transmit documentation as part of the scheme. The emails were transmitted from Maine to another state.

In August 2021, Bragdon purchased five firearms at Maine Military Supply in Brewer, falsely stating that she was the actual purchaser of the firearms. She was accompanied by an individual who directed her to specific firearms and who was later arrested with one of the firearms, a Walther model PK380 .380 caliber pistol. That individual was prohibited from purchasing a firearm under federal law.

Straw purchasing typically involves a buyer who can lawfully purchase firearms but who then provides them to another person who is legally prohibited from purchasing or possessing firearms, therefore allowing the prohibited person to illegally obtain firearms and avoid the national background check system.

Bragdon faces up to 30 years in prison and up to five years of supervised release. She will be sentenced after the completion of a presentence investigation report by the U.S. Probation Office. A federal district judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

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Loan Servicer Ceases Foreclosures Found to be Wrongful

Stephanie Abbott —  August 6, 2019 — 7 Comments

Ocwen Financial Corporation is a national provider of loan servicing for lenders. It is headquartered in Florida and has offices in several states. In its Consent Agreement with Maine’s Bureau of Consumer Credit Protection and Attorney General, Ocwen admitted that after July 2014 it pursued foreclosures against Maine homeowners based on paperwork which the State found to be legally defective.

Specifically, Ocwen used “powers of attorney” granted by corporate originators of the mortgages, but those corporate originators of the mortgages had been legally dissolved – had ceased to exist – no later than March 2012. The State alleges that the powers of attorney terminated when the granting corporations dissolved.

Under the Consent Agreement, the State found that Ocwen’s use of the powers of attorneys from legally nonexistent entities violated a statute prohibiting “false, deceptive or misleading representation or means in the collection of any debt.”

Ocwen’s illegal filings continued into January of 2019, even after Ocwen’s lawyers had assured State regulators in November 2018 that the practice would stop. The company termed the additional filings as “inadvertent.”

Ocwen Financial Corporation will refund or credit 24 Maine residents more than $50,000 in attorney’s fees they were assessed when their homes were foreclosed upon, and the company will pay $24,000 in civil penalties and $10,000 in investigative costs to the State of Maine, as part of a Consent Agreement signed last week.

“Maine’s Supreme Court has made clear that lenders must establish that they have the legal right to pursue foreclosures,” said Will Lund, Superintendent of the Maine Bureau of Consumer Credit Protection. “Those requirements were not followed in these cases.”

Attorney General Aaron M. Frey, whose office assisted state mortgage regulators in negotiating and resolving the matter, stated, “The Consent Agreement puts Ocwen – and other national mortgage lenders and servicers – on notice that they must follow the legal standards here in Maine if they pursue actions on defaulted mortgages.”

The Consent Agreement may have ramifications beyond Ocwen, noted Superintendent Lund, since other lenders may be filing foreclosures based on similar powers of attorney issued by the same nonexistent corporate loan originators used by Ocwen.

 

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Bank Manager Admits HELOC Scam

Allison Tussey —  August 21, 2013 — 1 Comment

Shauna Quinn, 44, Rockland, Maine, pled guilty to stealing more than $400,000 from the bank where she worked.

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