Texas Man Gets 61 Months For Running Foreclosure Rescue Racket Involving Fractional Interest Deed Transfers To Unwitting Debtors In Bankruptcy

In Austin, Texas, the Austin American Statesman reports:

• A Lakeway man who pleaded guilty this year to bankruptcy fraud and aggravated identity theft after he was paid to fraudulently delay foreclosures was sentenced Thursday to two consecutive prison terms totaling 61 months.
  
  
• Frederic Alan Gladle, 53, also was ordered to pay $214,258 in restitution and was told that after his prison term he won't be allowed to work in the mortgage or financial industries during his three-year supervised release. He also had to forfeit belongings, including prepaid debit cards and cash, seized during an investigation. Gladle has 14 days to appeal the sentence.

***

• From 2007 until his arrest in October, Gladle operated a business that helped distressed property owners delay foreclosure by paying a monthly fee — usually about $750 a month, according to prosecutors and charging documents. Through the course of the scheme, Gladle and his unnamed associates collected $1.6 million from clients and delayed the foreclosure sales of more than 1,100 properties, according to the documents.
  
  
• After clients signed up for Gladle's services, one of his salespeople had them sign deeds transferring a fractional share — usually one one-hundredth — of their distressed property, the documents said. The shares were transferred to an unrelated person who had previously filed a bankruptcy petition in court, the documents said. Those people were unaware that Gladle was using their names, which were obtained from online court records, the documents said.
  
  
• Gladle, or "a co-schemer operating at his direction," would then send a copy of the fractional deed and a copy of the unrelated person's bankruptcy petition to the lender that was expected to foreclose, the documents said. Because bankruptcy proceedings automatically delay foreclosure actions, the lender would not be able to immediately foreclose on Gladle's client's property, the documents said.
  
  
• Eventually, after the unrelated debtors claimed they knew nothing about owning the fractional interest, the foreclosure continued, according to the documents. Gladle would then go through the process again, causing further delay, the documents said.

For the story, see Man sentenced to 5 years in scheme to delay homeowner foreclosures.