Now-Disbarred Closing Attorney For Alleged Equity Stripping Foreclosure Rescue Operator Dodges Add'l Prison Time On State Court Charges

In Worcester, Massachusetts, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette reports:

• Disbarred Oxford lawyer Raymond A. Desautels III, who was sentenced last month to 2-1/2 years in federal prison on wire fraud charges, was sentenced [...] to a concurrent term of 2 years to 2 years and a day in state prison on charges related to what prosecutors said was an elaborate mortgage fraud scheme orchestrated by another Oxford man, Allen J. Seymour.(1) Mr. Desautels, 43, [...] pleaded guilty Oct. 29 in Worcester Superior Court to five counts of inducing a mortgage lender to part with property by false pretenses in connection with the alleged scheme. [...] The sentence imposed [...], which will not require Mr. Desautels to spend any additional time behind bars, was stayed until he begins his federal sentence later this month.

For more, see Desautels gets concurrent time in mortgage fraud scheme.

(1) According to the story, prosecutors said Seymour offered a variety of mortgage rescue options to homeowners in danger of foreclosure. The options included lifetime leases, reverse mortgages and refinancing, prosecutors allege. Some homeowners were reportedly told they would need to transfer title to their property to an investor, while others were not. Over an 18-month period, Mr. Seymour allegedly used false powers of attorney to cash more than $1 million in proceeds checks made payable to homeowners. Some investors who were reportedly lured into the alleged scam and used to take title from the homeowners facing foreclosure later said Seymour abandoned them to make the mortgage payments, causing those mortgages to fall into foreclosure and homeowners who had been promised lifetime leases to be evicted.