Mich. Woman Gets Up To 12 Months, Ordered To Pay $36K+ Restitution For Running Loan Mod Racket; Employee Gets 45 Days To Be Served Three Days/Week

In Allegan County, Michigan, The Allegan County News reports:

• A former Fennville woman will spend up to one year in jail after defrauding several dozen homeowners through her foreclosure rescue company. Tonya Raisbeck, 36, stood before Allegan Circuit Court Judge Margaret Zuzich Bakker on Friday, Jan. 13, and said she knew people questioned her intentions.

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• Through her business, Mobile Modification Inc., Raisbeck accepted payments from homeowners in exchange for what they were told would be help in adjusting the terms of their mortgages; many faced foreclosure and were hoping to keep ownership of their homes. Raisbeck has been self-employed since 1999 and had been a real estate agent.



• Representing the state attorney general’s office was Scott Teter, who said 43 victims contacted his office; he said 35 lost their homes. The attorney general’s office announced the charges against Raisbeck and her company and eight others in July 2010.

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• Bakker sentenced Raisbeck to one year in Allegan County Jail with credit for one day served for false pretenses, $1,000 to $20,000. Raisbeck will be on probation for five years and, in addition to court costs and fees, will also have to pay $36,417 in restitution.



• She received similar, concurrent sentences for one other count of false pretenses and one count of conspiracy to commit false pretenses.



• Bakker also sentenced Raisbeck to concurrent sentences of 90 days jail with credit for one day served for each of five violations of the Credit Services Act.



• Bakker said Raisbeck economically destroyed her victims. “The extensive, ongoing victimization that occurred...it’s phenomenal,” Bakker said. She said property crimes like this can trigger a chain of events that can ruin families. “To take away a family’s funds...results in so many ongoing effects; they can lose their mortgage, their home, their job, sometimes their spouse—sometimes their lives (through suicide).”

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• Also on Jan. 13, Bakker sentenced Raisbeck’s one employee at Mobile Modification to 45 days jail to be served Tuesday through Thursday at Allegan County Jail. Jessica Sheldon, 32, pleaded no contest to one count of false pretenses in exchange for the prosecution dropping the remaining charges. Sheldon was also sentenced to three years probation and must pay court costs and fees along with $6,559 in restitution, joint and several with Raisbeck.

For the story, see ‘One-woman crime wave’ sentenced.