KC Feds Indict Two For Allegedly Duping Financially Distressed Homeowners With False Debt Rescue Promises, Getting Victims To Send Mortgage Payments To Them, Sign Over POAs To Control Homes

From the Office of the U.S. Attorney (Kansas City, Missouri):

• [J]ohn Lee Norris, 42, and Julie Tina Hatcher, 37, both of Kansas City, were charged in a 21-count indictment [accusing them of running a racket that promised to help financially-strapped clients get out of debt and defrauding them, causing some of them to lose their homes and vehicles].

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• According to the indictment, Norris and Hatcher operated Reaper Investment Partners, LLC; in August 2011 they formed Death Productions LP. Between August 2010 and April 2012, the indictment alleges, Norris and Hatcher participated in a conspiracy to defraud homeowners and other debtors who were in financial distress (as well as their victims’ lenders and the Federal Housing Administration).
  
  Norris and Hatcher allegedly recruited and targeted homeowners and others who were in financial difficulties with promises that they would be rescued from their financial problems, including foreclosure. Norris and Hatcher allegedly told victims that Reaper Investment Partners (RIP) would refinance the homeowners’ existing mortgages for a lower amount and at an interest rate of three percent.
  
  As part of their scheme, the indictment says, RIP would control title to the homeowners’ properties. The homeowners would stop making payments to their lenders and instead make their monthly payments to RIP. The homeowners gave Norris and Hatcher power of attorney.
  
  Homeowners did not communicate with their lenders, the indictment says, even when they received telephone calls, late notices and foreclosure notices from their lenders. Instead, homeowners forwarded the notices and other documents to Norris and Hatcher. When homeowners contacted Norris and Hatcher to report that they had received notice that their homes were being foreclosed, the defendants reassured them by telling them not to worry, that was part of the process.
  
  Norris and Hatcher allegedly told some of their client-victims that one or both of them were lawyers, had legal experience, or were able to practice law. They allegedly said that RIP would draft, serve, file, and record legal forms, pleadings, and other documents and would conduct necessary legal processes, contact the relevant parties, and implement administrative procedures. Norris and Hatcher allegedly mailed documents to the homeowners’ lenders, demanding the lenders “cease and desist” collection activities.
  
  Norris and Hatcher also allegedly told individuals who were in financial difficulties due to credit card debt, vehicle loans, and other debt, that they would refinance the debt for a lower amount and interest rate and lower their monthly payments. These clients, likewise, would stop making payments to their lenders and instead make their monthly payments to RIP.

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• In addition to the conspiracy, Norris and Hatcher are charged together with nine counts of mail fraud and 10 counts of wire fraud.

For the U.S. Attorney press release, see KC Business Owners Indicted For Defrauding Debt-Stressed Clients.