Indiana Real Estate Agent Accused Of Running Foreclosure Rescue, Loan Modification Ripoffs Tagged With Emergency License Suspension

In Chesterton, Indiana, the Chesterton Tribune reports:

• Local real estate agent Don Johnson’s license has been suspended, on an emergency basis and for 90 days, by the Indiana Real Estate Commission (IREC), in response to complaints received after Nov. 19, 2010, when the Attorney General’s Office filed a civil suit against him.

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• On Nov. 19 the Attorney General’s Office filed a 33-count suit against Johnson which accused him of multiple improprieties, among them:
  
  •Engaging in material deception in the course of professional activities.
  
  •Violating the Mortgage Rescue Protection Act and the Credit Services Organization Act by failing to obtain a surety bond, by failing to provide a written statement prior to contracting services, and by failing to provide homeowners written notice of their rights.
  
  •Continuing to practice although “unfit to practice due to professional incompetence,” by failing “to account for and remit funds belonging to (a client) once the loan modification process was unsuccessful.”
  
  •Engaging in material deception, by failing to notify a client, the owner of a property, that the property had been sold at a sheriff’s sale and continuing to collect rental payments from the tenants of the property.
  
  •Engaging in material deception, by “forging a Fifth Third Bank letter.”
  
  •Engaging in material deception, by hiring “contractors to clean out properties to reduce their value, only to have the same contractors re-install the items to make it appear that (Johnson) has made extensive improvements to the property to raise the selling price.”

For the story, see Local man's real estate license suspended for 90 days.