MD Feds Obtain Guilty Plea From Loan Officer Who Screwed Homeowners By Stripping & Pocketing Their Home Equity In Sale Leaseback F'closure Rescue Scam

In Baltimore, Maryland, The Annapolis Capital reports:

• An Annapolis loan officer admitted [] he promised to help two homeowners avoid foreclosure, only to strip them of their equity and leave them homeless. James Dan, 45, faces up to 20 years in federal prison when sentenced Sept. 2 in U.S. District Court in Baltimore. Under a plea agreement - which involved a guilty plea to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud - he is allowed to appeal any sentence longer than three years and five months. Similar charges are still pending against Dan's alleged accomplice, James Fox, 40, of Crofton. Prosecutors contend the two cost homeowners $262,059 and their banks at least $308,612.

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• Beginning in 2006, Fox would identify homeowners who had equity in their homes, but who could not afford their mortgage payments and were at risk of losing their homes to foreclosure. Fox, sometimes in Dan's presence, told potential victims that they could "rescue" them and save their houses, prosecutors said.

• In the scheme, the owners would transfer their homes to Dan, who had excellent credit and could obtain a new mortgage. Dan would then make the payments for six months to a year while the original owners continued to live in the houses and worked to "repair" their credit. After the agreed-upon time, the original owners were to refinance the property and reacquire it. Prosecutors said Dan knew the scheme would rarely, if ever, work in favor of the original owners.

For more, see Loan officer guilty in foreclosure scheme (Promised to help 2 owners, but left them homeless).