Connecticut Feds Charge Dad/Daughter Team Accused Of Targeting Dozens Of Homeowners With Phony Debt Elimination Ripoff

In Hartford, Connecticut, The Hartford Courant reports:

• Federal tax agents on Tuesday accused a father and daughter from Wethersfield of using a far-fetched and phony debt-elimination scam to steal thousands of dollars from new U.S. immigrants living in Connecticut and elsewhere.
  
  
• Because of the scam, through which Deowraj Buddhu and his daughter Sunita collected thousands of dollars in fees from so-called clients, several of the clients were persuaded that they no longer had to make mortgage payments and ultimately lost their homes through foreclosure.
  
  
• The Buddhus are accused of claiming that they could help clients tap a secret government fund created to help homeowners pay mortgages and other debts. The fund was a fiction. But federal tax agents said that, beginning in 2009, the Buddhus convinced immigrants with little education or familiarity with financial instruments that the federal government was providing money for its citizens to pay bills.

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• A government affidavit filed in court said that Deowraj Buddhu is a citizen of Guyana and is the subject of a federal deportation order. The same affidavit said Sunita Buddhu had reservations on a flight Tuesday from New York to Guyana. Federal authorities would not discuss her whereabouts.

For more, see Man Arrested, Daughter Sought, In Scam That Bilked Immigrants.

See also: NBC Connecticut: Wethersfield Man Charged in Debt Scam: Prosecutors (A federal complaint accuses Deowraj Buddhu of bilking homeowners).

For the criminal charges, see U.S. v. Buddhu.

For earlier posts, see:

• Suspected Connecticut Foreclosure Assistance Scammer Feels The Heat, May Be Readying To Bolt Town; Victims: Target About To Take 'Extended Vacation;
• Alleged Scam Victims' Attorney: Mortgage Assistance-Peddling 'Guru' May Have Ripped Off $1M+ From Nearly 200 Connecticut Residents; Cops Yet To Act.