More On Alleged Metropolitan Money Store Equity Stripping, Foreclosure Rescue Scam; Victims Speak

In Maryland, The Baltimore Sun features a story of two area homeowners who were victimized in the alleged Metropolitan Money Store equity stripping scam in which Federal prosecutors indicted eight suspects this week. The alleged scam resulted in over $35 million in fraudulently obtained mortgages and over $10 million in stolen home equity, say authorities.

• "They hurt a lot of people," said [homeowner Nadine] Bostic, who is a plaintiff in a class-action civil suit against some of the federal defendants. "I never thought I'd ever say I wanted someone to be in jail, but I do. They need to be put underneath the jail. Not on top, not inside - underneath." [...] "When I was told they [arrested the alleged perpetrators], I didn't know if I should jump for joy or what," she said. "It was a strange feeling. I never thought anyone was going to do anything."

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• With her father serving in Iraq and money tight at home, [another victim, Jeanette] Meadows, 19, sounded less pleased about the arrests than weary of the whole affair yesterday as she described how her family became a target of the alleged mortgage schemers."They're backstabbers who can't be trusted," Meadows said from her home on Glenarm Road in Northeast Baltimore, a property that has avoided foreclosure only because a lawyer for the family last month asked a Circuit Court judge to invoke a federal law [the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act] that exempts active-duty military personnel from being forced from their homes.

For more, see Relief, anger follow arrests in mortgage loan scheme (Homeowners express emotions in alleged fraud that victimized them).

To read the Federal indictment of the alleged perpetrators, see U.S. v. JoyJackson, et al. (available online courtesy of the consumer protection attorneys at The Holland Law Firm, P.C. and the Legg Law Firm).

For more on the class action lawsuit filed against Metropolitam Money Store, go here to read the class action complaint; and for updates, check with the Metropolitan Money Store Class Action website.

Go here and go here for other posts on the alleged Metropolitan Money Store foreclosure rescue scam.

Go here for posts on the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act. joyjackson