NH Sale Leaseback Peddler Invokes "Bad Businessman" Defense As His Trial Begins For Alleged Fraud In Connection With Equity Stripping, Foreclosure Rescue Outfit; Says Company Was Nothing More Than "Failed Business Model", Not Criminal Enterprise

In Concord, New Hampshire, The Associated Press reports:

• Lawyers for Michael Prieto, who is charged with bilking financially distressed homeowners and lenders out of $13 million, say his mortgage rescue company amounted to a "failed business model" not a criminal enterprise.
  
  "My client was a bad businessman," defense attorney Jaye Rancourt told jurors in her opening statement Tuesday in federal court in Concord. "Being a bad businessman is not a crime."
  
  Prosecutors say Prieto persuaded people who were having difficulty making their mortgage payments to turn their homes over to him, continue living in the homes and pay rent with the prospect of buying back the homes in two years.
  
  Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Gunnison told jurors Prieto paid others to buy the homes to mask his role as both the seller and buyer.
  
  Gunnison said Prieto then remortgaged the homes — sometimes at interest rates as high as 14 percent — then defaulted on the loans.
  
  "Mr. Prieto was the boss, the controller of all the money and the arranger of all the fraudulent transactions," Gunnison told jurors. He said Prieto left lenders, homeowners and the "straw" buyers he paid to purchase the homes "holding the bag."

For more, see Trial under way in NH mortgage fraud case.