Pair Dodges Jail, Get Probation For Participation In San Diego-Area Foreclosure Rescue Scam That Conned 22 Homeowners To Sign Over 34 Home Titles

In San Diego, California, The San Diego Union Tribune reports:

• A husband and wife who took part in a foreclosure-rescue scam in San Diego were placed on probation for three years [] and ordered to surrender their real estate licenses. Benjamin and Gloria Hebron pleaded guilty last month to felony charges including rent skimming and deceitful practices by a foreclosure consultant. [...] If the Hebrons violate the terms of probation, they could each be ordered to serve a year in county jail.

• Prosecutors contend that the Hebrons and two other men, one of them a felon, persuaded 22 people to sign over 34 houses to fraudulent trusts. The victims, many of them Filipinos living in the South Bay, believed doing so could save their homes from foreclosure. [...] Their business associate, Joseph Encarnacion, [...] pleaded guilty last month to two counts of securities fraud and was sentenced to a four-year prison term.

• Edmundo Rubi, who prosecutors contend was the mastermind of the scam, has a mental-competency hearing scheduled for July 9 to determine how his case will proceed. In a separate matter, he pleaded guilty in 2005 to operating a pyramid scheme that swindled $24 million from 425 victims, mostly South Bay Filipinos.

Source: Probation for husband and wife in foreclosure scam.