Purported Clergyman Who Peddled Sale Leasebacks To Homeowners In F'closure Cops Plea To Felony Charges; Prosecutors: 3 Victims Scammed Out Of $650K

In Santa Clara County, California, the San Jose Mercury News reports:

• A San Juan Bautista man pleaded guilty to felony charges that he cheated Silicon Valley homeowners out of more than $650,000 and took title to their homes. Wesley Fort, 56, was a bishop of the Newlife Family Worship Center Church of God in Christ in Hollister when he scammed three families in San Jose and Milpitas, according to the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office.
  
  
• He will be sentenced to no more than two years and eight months in jail, three years of supervision and may be required to make restitution to the victims.
  
  
• Fort, acting as a foreclosure consultant in 2005 and 2006, told the families he could save their homes from foreclosure. He convinced them to transfer title of their homes to him and also to make mortgage payments to him, in one case a victim paid him more than the regular mortgage payments. He told the owners he would eventually return title to them, according to prosecutors.
  
  
• But all three families lost their homes. Fort, meanwhile, made money through either refinancing the homes or by selling the properties to himself, according to prosecutors. It is a felony for a foreclosure consultant to acquire an interest in a foreclosed home from a client.

Source: DA: Man pleads guilty to cheating three South Bay families out of $650,000.

(1) For more on this type of foreclosure rescue ripoff, see:

• Criminal Prosecutions Of Sale Leaseback Peddlers In Equity Stripping Foreclosure Rescue Deals;
• Dreams Foreclosed: The Rampant Theft of Americans' Homes Through Equity-stripping Foreclosure 'Rescue' Scams (June 2005).

(2) State court prosecutors appear to be stepping up to the plate and bringing criminal charges against these scammers in these cases which, at one time, were generally thought of as being civil cases. See, for example:

• LA Sale Leaseback Peddler 'Strikes Out'; Gets 25 To Life For Equity Stripping Ripoffs That Targeted Poor, Elderly With Promises Of Foreclosure Rescue,
  
  
• Illinois AG Tags Two With Criminal Charges For Allegedly Promising To Save Homeowners From Foreclosure By Peddling Sale Leaseback Schemes (The Illinois Attorney General brought a criminal prosecution involving the following charges: organizing a continuing financial crimes enterprise, financial institution fraud and theft by deception, criminal mortgage rescue fraud, forgery by delivery, and false impersonation of an attorney),
  
  
• Sale Leaseback Equity Stripping Peddler 'Scores' Guilty Verdict In Equity Stripping Ripoff; Grand Larceny, Scheme To Defraud, Conspiracy, Says Jury (Prosecuted by the Westchester County, NY District Attorney, a scammer who swindled four local families out of their homes was convicted after a jury trial of four felony counts of second-degree grand larceny and one each of first-degree scheme to defraud and fourth-degree conspiracy),
  
  
• Convicted Foreclosure Rescue Scammer Could Face Life Sentence On New Charges In Alleged Sale Leaseback, Equity Stripping Ripoff That Fleeced 5 Victims (Los Angeles District Attorney charged alleged scammer with 23 felonies — including theft from the elderly, identity theft and real estate fraud — for allegedly tricking five people into unknowingly granting him title to their homes, and charged him under California's 'three-strikes' law),
  
  
• Foreclosure Rescue Scam Mastermind Found Guilty Of Dozens Of Felonies; Ran Upfront Fee Land Grant Scheme, Sale Leaseback Rent Skimming Racket (After an eight-week trial, and through the efforts of the San Diego District Attorney, a scammer was found guilty of 160 counts of conspiracy to commit grand theft, grand theft, rent skimming and deceitful practices by a foreclosure consultant),
  
  
• Delaware AG Levels 21-Count Indictment Against Alleged Foreclosure Rescue Racket Using "Divine" Cover In Sale Leaseback, Equity Stripping Ripoff (The Delaware Attorney General obtained an indictment alleging that the scammer ran a criminal enterprise involving theft, money laundering, and forgery in which he preyed on vulnerable homeowners who faced imminent foreclosure),
  
  
• Central Florida Sale Leaseback Peddler Linked To 50 Ripoff Deals Gets 10 Years On Racketeering Charge; Targeted Cash-Strapped, High-Equity Homeowners (A joint prosecution by the Orange County, Florida and the state attorney general (under former AG Bill McCollum) led to the scammer copping a plea to a single count of felony racketeering after initially being charged with 12 first-degree felony counts, including racketeering, conspiracy to commit racketeering and numerous counts of grand theft),
  
  
• NY AG Squeezes Guilty Pleas From 4 For Roles In Alleged Sale Leaseback, Equity Stripping Foreclosure Rescue Racket; 1 Awaits Trial On 23 Felony Counts (After a New York Attorney General prosecution, four employees of a sale leaseback racket pleaded guilty in Albany County to felony charges that included grand larceny, scheme to defraud and falsifying business records, after the Attorney General's Office filed criminal complaints),
  
  
• Queens DA Bags Seventeen Suspects In Alleged Sale Leaseback, Equity Stripping Foreclosure Rescue Racket (Queens County, NY DA (joined in the probe by the office of the New York State Banking Department and the New York State Police) variously charged the defendants with first- and second-degree grand larceny, first degree criminal possession of stolen property, first-degree money laundering, first-degree identity theft, second-degree forgery, second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument, first-degree falsifying business records, first-degree offering a false instrument for filing, first-degree scheme to defraud and fourth-degree criminal facilitation).