19 indicted for mortgage fraud
Published: March 25, 2008 at 3:51 PM
One nationwide scam involved convincing homeowners to transfer their home equity to a company that would use the money to pay the home owner's bills and then rent the home to the resident. In the process, prosecutors say, the homeowners lost their equity and the title to their homes.
Among the 19 people charged, police arrested brothers Charles and Jeremy Michael Head, who were involved in a mortgage fraud lawsuit in 2005.
John Balazs, an attorney for Joshua Coffman of North Hollywood, said Coffman would plead not guilty. "This case is not anywhere near as clear-cut as the government makes it sound in their papers," Balazs told The Los Angeles Times.
"Some of these people in fact did manage to keep their homes," he said.
FBI spokesman Stephen Kodak in Washington, D.C. told the newspaper mortgage fraud cases were on a 60,000-a-year pace, up from the 28,000 cases filed in 2005.
© 2008 United Press International. All Rights Reserved.
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This material may not be reproduced, redistributed, or manipulated in any form.
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