Upfront Fee Loan Mod Scammer Buys Out Of Hard Time; Gets 6 Months-County Jail vs. 3 Yrs-State Prison In Exchange For Flimsy Promise To Pay Restitution

In Salinas, California, the Monterey Herald reports:

• After an emotional and sometimes tense hearing, a Gonzalez woman was remanded into custody [] for a real estate scam that bilked 57 people. Judge Adrienne Grover sentenced Maria Ponce to a three-year prison sentence but suspended imposition, saying her priority was for Ponce to pay full restitution to her victims. She placed Ponce on probation and ordered her to serve 180 days in jail.



• To further facilitate the possibility of restitution, she said Ponce can apply to serve the sentence on home confinement. In the meantime, due to the seriousness of the crime and Ponce's failure to pay any restitution since she pleaded no contest in November, she was immediately sent to jail.



• Ponce, 55, who suffers from severe rheumatoid arthritis, could not reach her arms behind her back to be handcuffed. On the day her trial was to begin, Ponce admitted her role in the Ponzi scheme that took $145,000 from 57 people facing foreclosure.

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• The victims described themselves as poor, desperate people who trusted Ponce despite their misgivings, paying her with "money we earned with our sweat." "We are all humble people," said Alicia Hernandez. "You believe anything they tell you when you're desperate."

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• The judge ordered her to get a job or show her probation officer regular proof she was seeking one. [...] She warned Ponce that if she did not meet the terms of her probation and did not make an effort to pay restitution, she would impose the three-year prison sentence.

For more, see Gonzales woman who ran real estate scam ordered to pay restitution (Bilked 57 people of $145,000).