SANTA ANA – In a clear “warning shot” to unscrupulous loan-modification consultants, Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. today announced that two women have each been sentenced to one year in jail and ordered to repay dozens of homeowners who were charged thousands of dollars in up-front fees for non-existent foreclosure-relief services.

Is your lender in this picture?

Marianne Curtis, 69, of Costa Mesa and Mary Alice Yraceburu, 46, of Riverdale, who operated Fresno and Orange County-based Foreclosure Freedom, pleaded guilty last month to 71 criminal counts, including grand theft, conspiracy and unlawful foreclosure consulting. Both will serve one year in Orange County jail and an additional four years of probation.

“Curtis and Yraceburu shamelessly exploited homeowners desperate to avoid foreclosure, charging up to $1,800 in up-front fees for loan modifications that were never delivered,” Brown said. “Today’s jail sentences send a warning shot to loan-modification consultants: If you swindle homeowners, you face serious time behind bars.”

Brown’s office initiated its investigation into Curtis and Yraceburu in early 2008 after receiving a complaint from the Tulare County District Attorney. Charges were filed in Orange County Superior Court on March 19, 2009, against the defendants, and both pleaded guilty on March 24, 2010.

Brown’s investigation located victims in many California towns and cities: Antelope, Avenal, Bakersfield, Crows Landing, Elk Grove, Fairfield, Fresno, Galt, Hanford, Hayward, Hollister, Kingsburg, Mendota, Modesto, Petaluma, Placerville, Richmond, Ridgecrest, Rio Linda, Sacramento, Salinas, San Leandro, Simi Valley, Stockton, Taft, Vacaville, Vallejo and Ventura.

In addition to today’s jail sentences, Curtis and Yraceburu were ordered to repay 36 victims a total of $32,040. If eligible victims not named in the complaint come forward, the court can order additional repayment throughout the defendants’ probation term. As a condition of today’s sentence, both defendants are also prohibited from any future work in the telemarketing and real estate industries.

Brown’s investigation found that from April 2007 until February 2008, the two women paid for access to foreclosure listings so they could directly solicit hundreds of homeowners underwater on their mortgages with mailers promising relief.

When homeowners called the number on the mailer, they were told their mortgages could be renegotiated to a lower monthly payment. Victims, however, were required to pay up to $1,800 in up-front fees and were instructed not to contact their lenders.

Victims were assured the company had “private lenders and specialists exclusive to their company who are very experienced in the options and methods used to renegotiate home loans,” yet neither of the women who operated the company had real estate licenses, legal training or any experience in the home mortgage market.

Investigators found no evidence they had negotiated any successful loan modifications, and most of the victims were either forced into bankruptcy or lost their homes to foreclosure. Bank account records revealed the defendants took over $120,000 from unsuspecting homeowners.

Both Curtis and Yraceburu pleaded guilty to all 71 criminal counts including:
- 34 counts of unlawful foreclosure consulting
- 29 counts of grand theft
- 7 counts of attempted grand theft
- 1 count of conspiracy

By law, all individuals and businesses offering mortgage-foreclosure consulting or loan-modification and foreclosure-assistance services must register with Brown’s office and post a $100,000 bond. It is also illegal for loan-modification consultants to charge up-front fees for their services.

Non-profit housing counselors certified by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development provide free help to homeowners. To find a counselor in your area, call 1-800-569-4287.

If you are a homeowner who has been scammed, contact Brown’s office at 1-800-952-5225 or file a complaint online at: www.ag.ca.gov/consumers/general.php.

Brown has sought court orders to shut down more than 30 fraudulent foreclosure-relief companies and has brought criminal charges and obtained lengthy prison sentences for dozens of other deceptive loan-modification consultants. Last month, Brown secured a court judgment that shut down two Orange County-based foreclosure-assistance companies, secured $1 million in restitution for victims and prohibited three individuals from ever working in the real estate industry again.

For more information on Brown’s action against loan-modification fraud visit: http://ag.ca.gov/loanmod.

A copy of the amended complaint, filed in Orange County Superior Court, is attached. # # # You may view the full account of this posting, including possible attachments, in the News & Alerts section of our website at: http://ag.ca.gov/newsalerts/release.php?id=1896

If you are here, you may need to Repair Your Credit. If you do not want to take on yet another battle and you are in Marin County, please contact Marin Family Action, a non profit which has been working with housing, financial literacy and credit issues since 1997. If you are not in their area, consider Lexington Law Credit Repair

They cover home buying information, consumer home mortgage information, when to pay up-front fees, broker/real estate license checks; and you SHOULD check any brokers/real estate agents you plan on working with — there were dozens of bogus real estate agents in Southern California a few years ago. The site also includes financial and real estate license checks, who to call for information, and gives instruction about filing a complaint and receiving advice from the Real Estate Commissioner.

This information is FREE.

On October 11, 2009, Calfornia Governor Schwarzenegger signed a bill prohibiting any person, including real estate licensees and attorneys, from demanding or collecting an advance fee from a consumer for loan modification or mortgage loan forbearance services affecting residences (1-4 units).

Agreements entered into and advance fees collected prior to October 11, 2009 are not affected. Advance fees collected after October 11, 2009 must be fully refunded.

For full details on Senate Bill 94 Click here.

From “10 Things You Must Do to Stop the Foreclosure Process:”
#9: UNDERSTAND FORECLOSURE PREVENTION OPTIONS You must talk with the LOSS MITIGATION DEPARTMENT to make arrangements in your options to stop foreclosure. Most lenders will not allow you to negotiate with them until you are three months late in your payments.

Editor’s Note: Do not play this game with the lender; we have just watched three foreclosures go through that started with the lender saying “We can’t help you until you are three months behind.” The homeowners did as suggested and the lenders foreclosed anyway. I’m working with a group that is working hard to figure out what is going on and attempting to block two of the three aforementioned foreclosures — one has already gone through! Something ugly is happening in America; we all need to pay attention and work to stop it if you have the time and the heart.

Anyway, try to brake thisrule. It is very common these days that you need to wait a lot on thephone to talk with this department. There are thousands of peoplelooking to negotiate as well -and growing-. You must know what is the best option, when is the best time and how to negotiate with them.
#10. BEWARE OF UNSCRUPULOUS INVESTORS!! If any firm claims they can stop your foreclosure immediately if you sign a document appointing them to act on your behalf, you may well be signing over the title to your property and becoming a renter in your own home! Never sign a legal document without reading and understanding all the terms and getting professional advice from an attorney, a trusted real estate professional, your financial adviser or a HUD approved housing counselor. Many web sites claiming to help you in a foreclosure situation are just to take your home away before the lender does. Beware those guys.

I am 62 and have owned an over-the-water duplex in Marin County for 13 years. In 2007, I contracted a staph infection in my knee after an arthroscopic surgery at St. Francis hospital. The infection required an additional 4 surgeries to rid the infection, followed by a total knee replacement. I was bedridden for nearly six months followed by six months of rehab.

At the same time I became ill, my neg-am adjustable loan reset, and my mortgage payment tripled virtually with no notice. The bank, at that time IndyMac, and later OneWest, would not negotiate with me at all.

They filed an NOD, and followed with NOS with a sale date in Mid-March. I filed a Chapter 7 the day before the sale. The bank then filed for relief of stay, and submitted an erroneous appraisal to convince the court that there was no equity and therefore they should be allowed to proceed with the sale.

The appraisal was for a 4bd/2ba 2200 sqft property. Mine is a 6bd/4ba 3045sqft property. I advised the Trustee as to the bogus appraisal, but somehow, they approved the relief of stay – BUT only giving them permission to refile an NOD, followed by another NOS – specifically to allow me time (about 4 mos)to sell the property.

Without anyone’s knowledge, and none of the required filings, the bank sold the property for $1.0M. It had appraised in 2007 for $2.7M and the Trustee signed a listing agreement at $2.8M. We appealed the sale, but the Judge decreed that the buyer was in good faith, the sale would stand, and I could recover my losses from the bank.

In the meantime, I have been evicted – out of here by Monday. The trustee also seized my ’57 T-Bird that my Dad bought new, and a 30′ Catalina sailboat that I have owned for 28 years, as now I have no equity and no cash.

The law firm representing the bank has acknowledged misleading the Trustee, and all of these errors are well documented.

To add insult to injury, the property was then sold for $300,000 to a local company . . . sounds like money laundering. We have tried locating the company purchasing these homes at these low costs to little avail; they are flying under the radar, but we will scope them out. This is especially questionable because the area in question has dropped little in value; it is desirable on the world market.

A group in Marin County is behind this gentleman and is encoraging him to file a complaint with his local District Attorney’s office, which he will do if we have to drive him there!

The same group that purchased the above-mentioned home also purchased a home for $387,680 and is now offering it around $200,000 at a foreclosure auction on the assumption that it will create a buying frenzy.

By retreating to outsider angst the left forgets one of the most exciting lessons of the Obama campaign: that ordinary people working for common purpose wield tremendous power. For those of us who work for our income and have modest means, it was unbelievable to watch ourselves become donors to a political campaign and find that those donations made a difference.