Ex-Tax Preparer Who Provided Falsified Work, Income Records In Connection With Sale Leaseback Foreclosure Rescue Ripoff Gets Two Years

In Los Angeles, California, City News Service reports:

• A former tax preparer from Downey was handed a two-year federal prison sentence [] for his role in a mortgage fraud scheme that preyed on Latino homeowners by secretly taking title to their properties and draining the equity from their homes. Pablo Araque, 41, was also ordered by U.S. District Judge S. James Otero to pay restitution of $1 million.
  
  
• Araque pleaded guilty in January to federal identity theft and mail fraud charges stemming from the scam in which homeowners' properties were sold, usually without their knowledge, to third-party straw buyers.

***

• Co-defendant Juan Rangel, 48, was sentenced last year to 22 years behind bars for running both the foreclosure fraud and a separate Ponzi scheme that took in at least $30 million from over 500 victims.

For the story, see Former Downey tax preparer gets 2 years in mortgage fraud scheme.