Arizona AG: Loan Modification Racket Targeted Spanish-Speaking Victims With Verbal Promises That Were Then Disclaimed In English-Text Contracts

In Pima County, Arizona, The Arizona Republic reports:

• Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne's office has filed a consumer-fraud lawsuit against a mortgage loan-modification assistance company that targets Spanish-speaking homeowners in Phoenix, Tucson and Las Vegas.



• A civil complaint filed Monday in Pima County Superior Court accuses Las Vegas-based Mortgage Capital USA Inc., Phoenix-based American Mortgage USA Inc. and affiliated businesses, all owned by Las Vegas resident Gustave "Gustavo" Anaya, of violating the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act.



• According to the complaint, Anaya and his companies charge struggling homeowners from $500 to $3,500 to help them avoid foreclosure but provide little or no assistance in return.

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• The companies, which advertise through Spanish-language media, instruct clients to stop paying the mortgage and cut off all communication with loan servicers, which actually hastens foreclosure of their homes, the complaint states.

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• According to the complaint, Mortgage Capital and American Mortgage follow a strategy of making verbal promises of success in Spanish while requiring clients to sign service contracts in English that contain no such promises.



• "Defendants verbally and routinely guaranteed consumers specific results from the negotiation process in Spanish while defendants' working agreement, written in English, disclaimed any guarantee or promise of a specific result," the complaint says.

For more, see Mortgage loan-aid company accused of fraud (Suit: Spanish-speaking homeowners targeted).

For the Arizona Attorney General press release, see AG Horne Files Complaint in Pima County Alleging Consumer Fraud Violations Against Mortgage Capital USA, Inc.

For the lawsuit, see State of Arizona v. Mortgage Capital USA, Inc., et al.